


A Walk in the Skies

by xingnini



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Demons, M/M, Magic, Romance, Royalty, Sorcerers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-09 13:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12277932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xingnini/pseuds/xingnini
Summary: After years of listening to stories about the Castle in the Clouds, Yixing leaves behind his boring life in search for it. What he didn’t expect was to find a whiny prince and a talking feisty flame banished inside the castle in the sky.





	A Walk in the Skies

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt from the Xingdaes Fic Fest 2016!!! Hope it somehow reaches the prompter;; this is heavily based off of Howl’s Moving Castle, my favorite Ghibli movie ^^ Someone said it was Miyazaki’s weakest film and I was really ready to fite (ง ಠ_ಠ)ง

_“Once upon a time, there was a little boy who lived a normal and boring life. He was raised by both his parents and he thought he would only live his life following in their footsteps._

 

_“Then one day, when he was only thirteen years old, he went out in the meadows to play around. At the border of the forest, he discovered a rabbit that was caught in a hunter’s trap. Its leg was badly mangled and bleeding; the rabbit couldn’t move its broken leg. The boy took pity on the rabbit, and not wanting it to be eaten, took it out of the trap and held it safely in his arms, with his hand covering and protecting the leg. When he reached his home, he wanted to treat the rabbit so that it wouldn’t die, but when he lifted his hand from its leg, it was no longer bleeding. In fact, it looked as if the rabbit was never harmed in the first place._

 

 _“It was as if the rabbit’s leg healed_ magically _by itself._

 

_“Weird things started to happen to him after that, such as objects floating around him and never running out of things, especially when he needed them. Things were moving without him touching them, and some people around him were acting strangely. He later realized that he possessed the ability to do magic.”_

 

_“Wow! So what’d he do with the magic?”_

 

_“Nothing, at first. He didn’t let anyone know, not even his parents; but when he was old enough to leave his home, he went on a search for people who were like him.”_

 

_“People who could do magic?”_

 

_“Yup — they were called sorcerers. He gathered many young men and women who possessed the same powers as him and he founded the Sorcerer’s Society. Together, they came up with rules and regulations to limit their powers, so that normal folk couldn’t take advantage of them. They also took the lead in coming up with new spells and potions, but soon more and more people started finding out about the sorcerers who lived among them. Some people got greedy and wanted to extort information from the sorcerers._

 

_“The sorcerers hated the idea of intruders stealing their spells and potions, so they decided they needed to a build a place where they can hide everything.”_

 

_“Did they build a castle?”_

 

_“Mhm, they built a huge and magnificent white castle and placed it in the sky so that no one would be able to reach it. It was called the Castle in the Clouds. The sorcerers made sure to hide it well, high in the sky and amongst the clouds so that it couldn’t be spotted easily. For the next few years, some normal folk claimed they’ve seen it floating across the sky, while others refuse to believe such a thing existed.”_

 

_“I believe in it, I believe in it! Do you think I’ll be able to find it one day, Nǎinai?”_

 

 _“Of course,” she said with a small smile. “I also believe in it and I_ know _you’ll be able to find it someday. If you continue to dream about it earnestly, you will be able to achieve whatever goal your heart has in mind for you.”_

 

 

Eighteen years passed since that night Zhang Yixing’s grandma told him about the Castle in the Clouds. Yixing grew up to be a young man who ran his own small bakery, spent his free time tending plants, and took care of his grandma.

 

His bakery was one level below where he and his grandma lived and where the mini greenhouse was, and it was situated next to train tracks. Even though the smoke from the train wasn’t good for the customers, it was alright as long as he kept all the windows closed — there wasn’t much he could do with the loud rumbling every time a train passed by, though. Despite that, his customers stayed loyal and he was happy to greet and serve them whenever they stopped by. Yixing thought he was living a content life.

 

That is, until his grandma passed away.

 

She passed away so suddenly that it threw him into a huge shock. She seemed to be healthy, but Yixing guessed he shouldn’t have been surprised because she lived long enough to be ninety-nine years old (even though she looked and moved around like she was still around seventy).

 

He had to hastily set up for her funeral on the little money he had accumulated from the bakery.  Since he was an only child and didn’t have any parents or relatives nearby, he had to take care of everything by himself. He managed to do it, and his grandma was given a proper wake and burial.

 

“… Nǎinai supported everything I’ve ever wanted to do, and she comforted me whenever things got rough. I just hope she lived a fulfilling life, one that she’d be happy to leave behind and move onto greater things from,” Yixing said, trying to hold his voice together. A few tears that he hadn’t cried out before the funeral were making their way down his face as he spoke about his grandma to the rest of the mourners. “I love you, Nǎinai, thank you for everything.”

 

Yixing bowed as he made his way from the podium and back to his seat. He hadn’t noticed before, but he saw a section full of people of all races who dressed differently. The expressions on their faces were solemn and their stances were a little stiff. None of them were wearing black, but instead were dressed according to their culture. Yixing didn’t find it disrespectful nor did he mind, but he just thought they looked a little… out of place.

 

He couldn’t help but wonder how all these people from all over the world knew his grandma; his town was so remote and small and he didn’t personally invite them to the funeral, so how did they even find out?

 

Yixing shook them out of his thoughts and focused on the funeral. When the procession and the burial ended, the mourners went to comfort Yixing and send him their condolences. The group of ethnic variety were the only ones who didn’t directly walk up to him. Instead, they passed by him and were whispering amongst themselves.

 

_“Do you think she told him?”_

 

_“The council won’t be too happy about this…”_

 

_“She passed away so young…”_

 

Even though he didn’t understand what they were saying at first, Yixing was a little startled to hear that last one because his grandma was _ninety-nine_ ; how was that young to anyone? When he turned around to talk to them, they were no longer anywhere in sight.

 

 

For the past few days, the bakery had been dark and empty and the small greenhouse on the roof had been completely lifeless. Without lights on, the smoke from the train blocked anything from coming in through the windows, so the bakery became dingy and gloomy. Yixing only sat in his bed all day, so the plants that waited for him only wilted while longing and yearning for their caretaker’s presence.

 

Yixing thought about how his grandma wouldn’t like seeing him moping around like this, but after she left him like that so suddenly, how can he smile around his customers as if nothing had happened?

 

 _‘I can’t stay miserable like this forever,”_ Yixing told himself. He made himself promise that it would be the last day he’d grieve like this. _‘I’ll clean Nǎinai’s room and I’ll open up shop tomorrow.’_

 

He slowly sat up from his bed and sluggishly headed over to his grandma’s room. Even though it appeared nice and clean to the naked eye, Yixing knew his grandma was a hoarder; beside her bed, she had a table that had drawers of where she kept junk that she couldn’t throw away.

 

Yixing decided he could worry about that later, because even if the rest of his grandma’s room was clean, some things needed to be stored away. He walked out of the room and came back with a couple of boxes, put them down on the floor, and began to set to work. Across from his grandma’s bed was a huge dresser, with a bunch of objects on top.

 

He realized he hasn’t really been in this room for years, because she had a lot of stuff he’s never seen before.

 

On top of the dresser were multiple glass domes filled with water — each were preserving a different kind of flower. How they were still alive, Yixing wasn’t really sure, but they looked huge and well-taken care of. He didn’t know if he should dump the water out and throw away the flowers, but ultimately decided to just store it as it was.

 

That wasn’t all.

 

His grandma had all kinds of feathers, roots, and books on her bedside table. The weird roots should have probably been in the kitchen, but Yixing was a little skeptical about how long they’ve been in her room, so he felt regretful about having to throw it out. Everything else went into the box; he was blindly reaching book for book to put into the box when one in particular finally caught his eye.

 

_The Castle in the Clouds_

 

Written in gold lettering on the aged black leather covering were the words Yixing hadn’t heard in years. After that night of his grandma telling him that bedtime story, Yixing wanted to talk more and more about the castle; his grandma laughed with glee as he pretended to be an adventurous explorer that was searching for the castle, running through the kitchen and jumping around the tables.

 

He slowly opened the book and saw a intricate and very detailed sketch of the castle, seated on a beautiful bed of fluffy clouds. He turned the page expecting to see the story that his grandma told him when he was a little boy, but he saw characters that he couldn’t understand. He realized it was written in a different language, and it was one that was completely unfamiliar. He flipped page by page, but it all looked the same — how did his grandma even understand its contents?

 

At the end of the book, he came across another sketch of a huge ugly-looking structure, with unsightly wings and a dainty propeller at the back; it looked as if someone scoured the junkyard and stuck as many pieces of scrap metal together. It was also among the clouds, just like the castle in the first picture was, but the structure could not even compare to the magnificence of the castle. Scrawled at the corner of the sketch, a few lines of writing caught Yixing’s eyes and they were finally words he could understand.

 

**Running around life’s merry-go-round**

**Without a journey so thorough**

**No castle can be found**

**When the light first strikes o’er the meadow**

**Look up towards the sky**

**It can disappear in the blink of an eye**

 

 _“I_ know _you’ll be able to find it someday. If you continue to dream about it earnestly, you will be able to achieve whatever goal your heart has in mind for you,”_ Nǎinai’s voice rang in his head.

 

_‘This… This is what I needed.’_

 

Yixing set the book aside and stood up; immediately making up his mind, he walked out of the room with a new motivated mindset and a few plans formulating in his head.

 

 

The marketplace was bustling about during mid-morning hours, with the people of the town scurrying from stall to stall and vendors yelling their prices and bargains to catch as much attention as they could. This was the first time in days that Yixing set foot outside of his house, so even the noise and banter was refreshing to him.

 

He walked past a stall that specialized in honey, another stall that specialized in herbs, and then one that specialized in peppers before he came across the one that he was looking for.

 

“Hello, young man, any fruits you’ve come here for in particular?” the vendor greeted him.

 

“A couple of berries and apples would be nice, thank you,” Yixing answered, offering her a good-natured smile.

 

“Yixing?” he heard a voice call out after he paid the vendor for the food he bought. He whipped around to see the youthful and innocent face of his best friend.

 

“Hey, Luhan!”

 

“Yixing, you’re finally out! But what are you doing at this stall? The honey one is right over there,” he pointed out three stalls away.

 

“I’m not here to buy for the bakery,” Yixing told him. “I’m closing that down for a while and I’m going traveling.” He turned back to the vendor, who handed him his food and thanked her for her service.

 

“Traveling? Where are you going?” Luhan asked, incredulously, finally noticing the travel pack his best friend was sporting. In all their years they have known each other, Yixing did not seem like one to leave this small and boring town.

 

“This is a secret, alright?” Yixing told him, leaning in a little and lowering his voice. “I realized that I’m not satisfied living life alone in the bakery and just taking care of plants. I’m leaving that all behind and I’m going to search for the Castle in the Clouds.”

 

 _“The Castle in the Clouds?!”_ Luhan squawked, catching the attention of a nearby sleeping dog. _“That doesn’t even exist! It’s just a bunch of rumors!”_

 

“Shh!!” Yixing urgently shushed him. “I just said it was a secret!”

 

“How are you going to look for it? Do you even have an idea of where it is?” his friend asked, as they both continued to walk past market stalls. They didn’t even notice a little someone starting to follow them from behind.

 

“Nope,” Yixing answered truthfully. “I just know it’s in the sky.”

 

Luhan’s expression looked like it wanted to slap the snark out of him, but he held back. “Let me go with you. I have more experience in the skies than you do.”

 

“You want to come?” Yixing asked. “You only know how to run a shop with aircraft parts, not actually drive an airplane. Technically, you _don’t_ have that much experience.”

 

“Have you forgotten I sell air gliders, too? I know how to work one and I’ll teach you.”   

 

“You really want to come? Even if it'll be dangerous?”

 

“All the more reason not to let you go alone.”

 

“You just said you don't believe that the castle exists,” Yixing told him skeptically.

 

“It'll be an adventure to the middle of nowhere,” Luhan answered brightly.

 

Yixing only shrugged; it was his best friend after all — it would be nice to have company on this journey. He had no idea what he’d face and what he’d go up against, so it would be better not to be alone, right?

 

“Okay, I was planning on leaving straight from here after buying the food I needed, but we should go back to your house so that you can pack.”

 

With Luhan’s advice, they stopped by his shop to pick up the newest modified air gliders, which folded neatly into Yixing’s pack. Luhan closed up shop before they exited the marketplace; they traveled along the dusty trail that led to the older’s house while talking about a travel plan.

 

“How did you think you were going to reach a castle _in the sky_ if you didn’t take any air gliders,” Luhan scolded his friend, as they neared his house. “What if I didn’t run into you at the market?”

 

“I didn’t think it through,” Yixing admitted sheepishly. “I was too excited to set off on the journey.”

 

“Well, good thi—” Luhan twisted his neck a little more towards behind Yixing when something caught his eye. “Oh? There’s something following us?”

 

Yixing also craned his head to see a little dog with long, matted white hair with brown spots trotting along. “A dog?” When he stopped walking, the dog also stopped.

 

“Well, I’m gonna go inside and pack everything,” Luhan told the younger. “I won’t take too long.”

 

“Okay,” Yixing answered, then bent down on one knee in front of the dog. “Hi, there, what’s your name?”

 

Even though its hair was covering its eyes, Yixing could tell the dog was only looking expectantly at him, so he looked at it’s neck only to see no collar. “Are you lost? You don’t have a name tag…”

 

It looked friendly enough; it didn’t bark, growl, or try to attack him.

 

“Are you following us because you’re hungry?” Yixing asked, but the dog still didn’t give any kind of response, just sitting and looking up towards him. He decided to go through the pack of food he just bought from the market and give something to it. When he stuck out a berry towards the dog’s mouth, it turned its head in refusal.

 

“Okay… I guess you don’t like berries…”

 

He took some of the bread he brought from his bakery and ripped off a piece. The dog happily ate it, but still sat down.

 

“Go on now, you got your treat,” Yixing urged for it to leave. “There’s more at the market, I’m sure a nice vendor would give you some if you begged nicely.”

 

“You're having a conversation with the dog?” Luhan asked, as he stepped out of his house, now wearing a backpack.

 

“It’s not leaving.”

 

“Just let it do whatever it wants.”

 

Yixing turned back to the dog and looked at it with earnest eyes. “Would you like to come with us to find the Castle in the Clouds?”

 

This time, the dog gave out a loud yip and surprised Yixing and Luhan; the younger wasn't expecting it to understand and actually answer, since it was unresponsive up until now. He looked up at Luhan, as if asking him for permission if the dog could tag along.

 

“Why are you looking at me?” the older asked. “S’not like I’m in charge of this journey.”

 

“Then it’s settled! You can come,” Yixing happily told the dog. “As for a name, we’ll call you Moongchi, in case you go running off…”

 

Luhan made sure his pack was secure on his back, then gave Yixing a big thumbs up.

 

“Ready?” Yixing asked his new travel companion. When Luhan nodded and Yixing saw the dog looking as if it was prepared to set off too, he faced forward towards the trail leading away from the town and smiled brightly. “Then, off we go!”

 

 

The first thing Luhan did was panic when he heard they were making their way to the Dark Forest.

 

“Hear me out!!” Yixing exclaimed, trying to calm down his screaming friend. “When I found the book about the Castle in the Clouds in my grandmother’s room, I found a riddle at the back of it. It was the only thing in the entire book that I could understand.”

 

“Okay, what about this riddle? Why do we have to go through that forest?!”

 

“Hold on,” Yixing said, reaching back to the side of his backpack and pulling out a folded paper from one of the pockets. Moongchi continued to nonchalantly walk ahead, but had to stop and sit when he realized the humans weren’t following anymore. When Yixing opened the paper up, Luhan saw that it was a sketch of the ugly structure.

 

“That’s the castle?” he asked in disbelief.

 

“I think so, but I’m not sure,” Yixing admitted. “I grew up being told that it was a beautiful and magnificent white castle… but then why would this picture be in the book with this riddle written beneath it?”

 

“What does the riddle say?” Luhan asked, leaning in to look more closely at the scrawled writing.

 

**Running around life’s merry-go-round**

**Without a journey so thorough**

**No castle can be found**

**When the light first strikes o’er the meadow**

**Look up towards the sky**

**It can disappear in the blink of an eye**

 

“Huh,” Luhan grunted, “shouldn’t we try to decode the riddle before setting off to nowhere?”

 

“I already tried and I sort of have an idea of what it’s saying, but it’s not like it has an answer key where I can check if I’m right,” Yixing told him.

 

“Okay, so what’s your take on it?”

 

“ _‘Without a journey so thorough, no castle can be found.’_ So we have to travel somewhere to find the castle — I think the people from the marketplace who have claimed that they’ve seen the castle are phonies or just mistook something else as it.”

 

“Okay… that makes sense…” Luhan nodded, thoughtfully.

 

“ _‘When the light first strikes o’er the meadow,’_ I think this is a _key_ line — when light first strikes is when the sun is rising, so around dawn. However, there might be a little word play on light — it’s the opposite of dark as in the Dark Forest — when people make it out of the Dark Forest, they are once again exposed to light. I also know that on the other side of the forest, there’s a huge chunk of untouched land since no one wants to go through the Dark Forest. That could be the meadow that the riddle is talking about.”

 

“That… also makes sense…” Luhan said cautiously. “But what happens if we’re wrong? We’ll have gone through the Dark Forest for nothing… We would have no more leads on where the castle is, if we even make it out alive!!”

 

Yixing frowned. “I mean, I told you this journey would be dangerous; it’s okay with me if you want to turn back now…”

 

Luhan sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “No, I promised that I wouldn’t let you go through this danger by yourself. Plus, I already packed up everything, so it would be disappointing to just go home without experiencing any adventure.”

 

Yixing chuckled at his best friend’s reasoning, and Luhan offered a smile back.

 

“I won’t abandon you and let you face this journey alone,” the older added for reaffirmation.  

 

Yixing looked at his friend gratefully and folded up the sketch to put it on the side pocket again. “Let’s continue on then! Moongchi is waiting for us.”  

 

They end up reaching the edge of the Dark Forest as night began to fall and decided they would camp out before entering it in the morning’s broad daylight.

 

 

When the sunlight shone on their sleeping bags and woke them up, they hastily packed up and mentally prepared themselves for what was to come.

 

“We’re gonna make it through,” Yixing said determinedly. “Are you ready?”

 

Luhan continued staring at the forest’s entrance with fear in his eyes, but he still absent-mindedly nodded his head. They both could see how dark it was behind the trees and how eerily quiet it was in there. However, without their cue, Moongchi trotted headfirst into the forest, causing them to frantically go after the dog in a panic.

 

Once they stepped foot into the forest, it felt like they were in a completely different land. Somehow, the light seemed millions of miles away even though they had only taken a few steps into the cursed woods. It felt like… they wouldn’t be able to see the light of day for years.

 

“I… I don’t like this feeling,” Luhan whimpered. “Zhang Yixing, I swear to God, if we don’t make it out alive—”

 

“We will, we will,” the younger tried to reassure his friend. “Look at Moongchi, he doesn’t seem scared at all.”

 

The dog kept walking forward without a care in the world; it would occasionally turn back to check if Yixing and Luhan were still following behind, but it took the lead for the most part.

 

The Dark Forest was completely silent; no rustling leaves or any howling animals. It was known to be too dangerous for even animals to inhabit it. There were, however, rumors of _demons_ residing in this forest.

 

“We just,” Yixing started to say, looking cautiously around in case anything jumps at them. “We just have to keep walking straight for one or two days. I would rather do that then spend two months walking _around_ the borders of the forest.”

 

“But at least that way, we’re guaranteed to _live_ ,” Luhan continued to whine.

 

“No, we could’ve run out of food and starved,” Yixing insisted. Luhan didn’t respond, because the younger was right. “We haven’t even encountered anything yet; for all we know, this forest could be completely uninhabited.”  

 

“Okay, okay, I just need to calm down,” Luhan said, taking deep breaths. Both of them looked at Moongchi, who seemed to trudge on as if the whole place was his own territory.

 

Since the town they were from was very small, rumors were always quick to spread throughout it. Some of it were true, some of it were false, but Yixing always took them with a grain of salt. Luhan, however…

 

He’s heard that some of the rumors said there were demons that roamed the forest, but so far, they haven’t encountered any yet. They’ve been walking in the forest for hours before they sat down to take a rest and eat.

 

“See? Nothing’s happened to us,” Yixing reassured his companion.

 

“Maybe they’re waiting until nightfall to eat us,” Luhan whispered.

 

“What’s the difference? It’s always dark here, anyway,” Yixing told him. “You’re being a little too anxious.”

 

“We don’t even have weapons to smack them across the face with!” Luhan wailed.

 

“Shh!!” Yixing clamped his hand over Luhan’s mouth to quiet him down. When he deemed it was safe to remove his hand, he glared at the older.

 

Luhan shrugged sheepishly in apology.

 

“If you keep yelling like that, you might attract them,” Yixing hissed.

 

“YOU SAID THERE’S NONE IN THIS FOREST!” Luhan shrieked.

 

Yixing could only smack himself in the face, because getting Luhan to shut up will probably be harder than getting through this forest.

 

They ended up walking for the rest of the day and, luckily, didn’t encounter any demons or creatures of the sort. There was no way to tell time, so when they were completely exhausted and unable to go on any further, Yixing decided to call it a day.

 

They set up the tent — Luhan rushing the setup process so that he’d have some shelter to hide in as soon as possible — and when they placed all their sleeping bags inside, they zipped up the tent and immediately knocked out like lights.

 

 

Yixing and Luhan woke up to Moongchi barking like crazy.

 

The two of them were a little frazzled from being woken up so suddenly, but when they saw why Moongchi was yapping so much, they jumped back into the rear of their tent and felt their blood freeze up.

 

Staring at them from the front of their now unzipped tent were two sets of wide eyes peeking in on them.

 

“We came across your tent and wanted to greet you newcomers, but it seems like we’re not welcomed,” one of them said, looking down at Moongchi.

 

“I would have put a curse on your pooch to shut it up, but it seems like I don’t really have to,” said the other.

 

Luhan and Yixing continued to stare in shock at the beings in front of them. Their face and bodies were completely black, except for their beady eyes and mischievous smiles. The younger had heard about them before.

 

They were shadow demons.

 

_So, the rumors were true._

 

They roamed the Dark Forest and preyed on travelers making their way through the cursed woods.

 

“W-what do you want?” Yixing managed to stutter out against the back of his tent.

 

“Nothing much,” the really tall one answered. “We’re just asking to prey on your energy and maybe suck out a soul or two.”

 

All that sounded like to Yixing was _doom_. He looked over at Luhan to see if he had fainted yet, but the older was just staring at the demons with wide, frightened eyes.

 

“Is there anything else you’d like besides that?” Yixing asked bravely, trying to bargain for their lives.

 

“Hmm,” the taller one hummed while the other tapped his chin. “You can give us all your flashlights.”

 

“Our flashlights?” Luhan repeated with surprise and doubt. “That’s it?”

 

The two demons nodded.

 

Yixing rummaged through his pack and fished out a flashlight. He chucked it over to one of the demons, who caught it easily with one hand.

 

“You’ll leave us alone now?” Yixing asked.

 

“You have one more in there,” the demon said amusedly, as if catching him in the act. “Give it up; don’t think you can hide it from us.”

 

Reluctantly, Yixing grabbed the other flashlight from his pack and handed it over to the demons. They were smiling impishly the whole time, as if waiting for the two humans to realize that something was up.

 

“Aren’t you going to ask what the catch is?” one of the demons asked.

 

“Don’t you think a couple of flashlights in exchange for a soul is a little fishy?” the other taunted.

 

“W-what’s the catch?” Luhan bravely asked. “What do you need our flashlights for? Aren’t you demons of _darkness_?”

 

“It’s so that you guys have to travel the rest of the way in the dark,” the demon with cat eyes happily replied. “You’ll for sure attract _other demons_.”

 

Then, the demon gave their flashlights a little squeeze and caused them to disintegrate into nothing. Yixing had the audacity to glare at the demons for destroying something so useful to them, while Luhan looked like he was going to pee himself.

 

“So, as promised, we’ll leave you alone,” the demons relinquished. _“For now.”_

 

Without zipping up the tent, the two demons withdrew their faces and stalked away, flashlights and all disappearing along with them.

 

 

_“We gotta move right away and fast and get outta here as soon as possible and—”_

 

“Luhan…”

 

_“—we don’t know when those demons are going to come again and take everything else we have and possibly suck out our souls and—”_

 

“Luhan!!” Yixing exclaimed. “You’re going to attract more demons if you don’t stop speaking out loud like that.”

 

The older immediately shut up, and Yixing prodded him to help pack up the tent so that they could get a move-on again. Once they finished, they went in the direction the back of the tent was facing, which Yixing carefully set up that way the day before, so they could remember their way out of the forest.

 

As Yixing picked up his pack, he couldn’t help but feel as if it was lighter. He didn’t think much of it — maybe it was because of the food they’ve eaten.

 

Luhan would occasionally whimper through closed lips, which Yixing would have found really funny if he wasn’t so worried himself. Never had he seen his older friend so cowardly like this, meanwhile Moongchi was _still_ leading the way fearlessly. Luhan was the polar opposite of _a dog._

 

The older told Yixing that he was even willing to eat while walking instead of taking a rest, since he’d rather get out of these cursed woods faster. The only rest they’d get was at night, when they’d set up the tent and sleep.

 

After a few more hours, Yixing handed a cold steamed bun to Luhan, since he heard his stomach growling.

 

“Thanks,” Luhan nodded and accepted the food. He took one bite when they heard a blast behind them, causing them to stop walking and turn around.

 

“What was that?” Yixing asked, alarmed.

 

The two of them yelled out in surprise when they saw one of the trees burst into black flames. The fire continued to spread to other trees until the shape of a tall and skinny man appeared.

 

Luhan cursed under his breath when he realized it was another demon.

 

Yixing watched with wide eyes as the demon slowly approached them, with his ears sticking out and a white teeth-rich smile flashing at them. When the demon was finally an arm’s length away from them, the black inferno all around them vanished and the trees returned to the state they were in before. It was as if they were not ablaze a few seconds ago.

 

“Wh-what do you want?” Yixing bravely asked while the demon continued to grin at them.

 

“My brothers _Despair_ and _Doubt_ told me there were travelers in the woods,” the demon said, smiling wickedly. “We haven’t had visitors here in _years_.”

 

 _“Despair and Doubt?”_ Yixing repeated. “Are those the names of the other demons we encountered?”

 

“Mhm,” the demon nodded. “Can you guess who I am?”

 

“Douchebag, Dumba—oof!” Luhan muttered low enough for the demon not to hear before he grunted in pain from being elbowed by Yixing.

 

“Don’t upset him,” Yixing warned quietly, then turned back to the demon with a smile. “Sorry, we’re terrible at guessing. We can’t really think of anything right now.”

 

“Boo, you guys are boring,” the demon pouted. “I’m the Demon of Destruction — I like blowing things up in my path, and you guys happened to be lucky you weren’t hit by the fire.”

 

“You tried to hit us?” Luhan asked. “Since we didn’t get hit, we’ll be on our way then,” he tried to walk on past, but the demon reappeared right before his eyes.

 

“Well, sometimes I like to play with my food before I devour it,” the demon told them and Yixing suddenly wanted to wipe that shit-eating grin off his face.

 

Luhan visibly gulped. “What if I told you that I’m not that tasty?”

 

“I wouldn’t believe you,” the demon shrugged. “All demons here are starving because we haven’t eaten a soul in years. We’ll take anything we can get.”

 

Luhan looked as if he were gonna cry, but Yixing still maintained his cool.

 

“How about this: if you can solve three riddles, I’ll let you go and allow you time to try to exit the forest. If you still haven’t gotten out by then, I will eat your souls. If you can’t solve these riddles, then I get to have my dinner a little early.”

 

Luhan looked uneasily at Yixing, but the younger turned back to the demon with a determined expression. “What are the riddles?”

 

The Demon of Destruction raised his eyes at the young man. “Are you sure?”

 

“What other choice do I have?” Yixing asked, annoyed.

 

As if it were possible, the demon’s smile grew even wider. “You can give me a kiss and I’ll let you and your friends off.”

 

Luhan’s eyes widened. “No! That’s a lie! That’s one of the ways he can steal your soul,” he told Yixing urgently. “Don’t agree to it!”

 

Yixing gave his friend a smile and said, “I knew that already,” then turned to Destruction, “I’m still sticking with choosing to answer the riddles.”

 

“Alright,” the demon acquiesced, “Here’s the first one. _If you give me food, I will live. If you give me water, I will die. What am I?”_

 

“Fire?” Yixing blurted out, then covered his mouth with wide eyes. It was the first thing that came to mind, having just seen the trees burst into flames.

 

Destruction raised one eyebrow and drawled out, “Yes… that’s… correct. You got the first one right.”

 

“What’s the second one?” Luhan asked.

 

The demon gave them an incredulous look shortly before changing his expression once again to a mischievous one. “Here’s the next one. _A man is trapped in a room. The room has only two possible exits: two doors. Through the first door, there is a room constructed from magnifying glass. The blazing hot sun instantly fries anything or anyone that enters. Through the second door there is a fire-breathing dragon. How does the man escape?”_

 

“That’s easy,” Luhan piped up. “He could just wait until the sun sets. The man went through the door at night.”

 

A brief look of frustration flickered across the demon’s expression, but it was really easy for him to get back into the childish demeanor he had. It seemed like he had one more trick up his sleeve, and it was one he was confident about.

 

“Correct again. Now, those two riddles were child’s play. The last one is the one you really have to answer. You only get one try, and if you fail, I get to take your souls. Even that mutt’s,” the demon said, referring to Moongchi, who started growling.

 

“Yes, agreed,” Yixing answered with confidence.

 

“I am silent, but I call out loudly to my kind. I cannot move, but I guide those who need help. I’m colorful and vibrant, but I also burst with monochrome colors. What am I?” he recited with a self-assured smirk.

 

It sounded really familiar; Yixing had heard this riddle while growing up. His grandma loved to joke around and taunt him with wit, rather than meaningless physical pranks. She tested him left and right with puns and jokes that Yixing learned to know the answers to all of them.

 

And he knew exactly what the answer to this riddle was.

 

It was a kind of plant that attracted animals, bears in particular. They’re only known to be in one meadow — Sheepshead Meadow — so travelers used the sighting of that plant as a staple landmark. Finally, the colors of the plant were indeed bright and colorful, but if mistakenly eaten, it could make a person go colorblind.

 

“Bearsprout. It’s bearsprout, right?”

 

The demon blanched as soon as the answer left Yixing’s mouth.

 

“Y-you—” Destruction stuttered out. “How did you know that? Not everyone knows what bearsprout is… I didn’t know you’re… The only people who know are—”

 

Yixing and Luhan watched as the demon stepped back with eyes that were wide with fear. His playful and troublesome personality was gone, and he was just a harmless shadow now backing away from the baffled travelers.

 

The demon then vanished.

 

Luhan and Yixing stared at the spot where the demon was last seen, then turned to each other.

 

"What? Why’d he leave?" Luhan asked.

 

"I have no idea," Yixing answered. "Let's just be grateful that we've escaped with our lives intact and move on before he comes back.

 

They hurriedly picked up their things, which they accidentally dropped from the shock of the exploding trees. Moongchi assumed leadership position once more as Yixing and Luhan followed the dog.

 

For the next few days, they didn't encounter any more demons. Yixing couldn't help but wonder what was up with the last demon's reaction to him answering the final riddle. The way he seemed confident before asking the question, and then the 180 degree flip in attitude once it was answered was a bit off-putting to him.

 

Luhan seemed to read his thoughts when he asked, "Hey, how did you know that the answer to that question was 'bearsprout' or whatever it was? I've never heard of that thing before."

 

"Hmm?" Yixing's head was pulled out of the clouds. "Oh... my grandma used to ask me riddles like that all the time. That riddle happened to be one of the ones I remembered."

 

"Your grandma asked you _that_ riddle before?"

 

"Yeah, she liked to test me on my wit. It also served as a teaching in a way, I guess. I quietly thanked her for letting us survive past that demon. It’s because she asked me weird riddles like that every day during my childhood that we’re still alive.”

 

"No wonder you answered the riddles like the demon was asking you what 2 + 2 was..."

 

“Hey, you answered the second one! But, yeah, we just got lucky with the last riddle,” Yixing agreed. “But what’s bothering me is what that demon said before he disappeared. He seemed frightened that I knew the answer.”

 

“Hmm? I didn’t really notice. I was too preoccupied with being scared for my own life.”

 

Yixing tutted. “You're not gonna survive like that out here,” he joked.

 

The forest seemed endless. As they continued to walk, they could feel slight changes in the atmosphere, barely noticeable unless really paid attention to. Since they had their guard up for any more demons, they could easily detect what was different.

 

This part of the woods seemed darker than any other part they’ve walked in already. It almost made Yixing feel like giving up all hope he's ever had since he's stepped foot into this forest.

 

_Almost._

 

"That's...—Am I seeing things? That''s light, right?" he asked his companion, trembling from fear and excitement at the same time.

 

Moongchi immediately started to bark like crazy and began running full speed ahead. Shaken out of their dazes, both Yixing and Luhan followed suit. Up ahead, there was indeed a light that looked like a tiny pea in the distance, but it was surely getting bigger and bigger the closer they ran to it.

 

“I don’t believe it!” Luhan shouted, laughing gleefully. “We’re gonna get out of here!! We’re really gonna make it out alive!!”

 

_But he had spoken too soon._

 

A dark miasma had materialized in front of Moongchi, blocking the light of the forest’s exit. The dog halted in its path, cowering back from the new demon.

 

Yixing and Luhan also froze, completely taken off guard and terrified of what was to come next. They had been so close, but with a demon smiling smugly in front of the entrance, they were still so, so far.

 

“Leave us alone!” Yixing commanded.

 

“Let us pass!” Luhan begged.

 

But the demon only cackled evilly, amused that these humans had the audacity to think they had a chance of getting past him alive.

 

“As the Demon of Delusion,” the being drawled out with a lopsided smirk, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to make it true that you were deluded to think you can make it out of this forest.”

 

“Please,” Yixing pleaded. “You can have my soul, I will give it up willingly. Only if you let my friend and the dog go.”

 

“Willingly?” Delusion asked curiously, tilting his head. “So you will not struggle if I let the others go? You will trade your life for theirs?”

 

Yixing closed his eyes and nodded.

 

“Alright, then it’s a deal. You can’t back out of this now,” the demon said delightfully. Luhan covered his mouth in shock and despair as his friend stepped forwards towards the dark demon.

 

“Yixing, don’t do th—”

 

“Luhan,” the younger cut in. “Just run. Get out of here while you can. The end is just there, you can still make it out alive.”

 

“But—”

 

“No, if it means you can continue living, I will do this for you.”

 

Delusion smiled deviously as he stepped closer to Yixing, intending to completely suck in his soul. It was only after a few moments that his smirk faded away and Yixing was still left standing.

 

“You…” Delusion said with disbelief, as Yixing opened his eyes. “I can’t take your soul. _You tricked me!_ ”

 

“What?”

 

 _“I can’t take your soul!!!!”_ the demon roared. Delusion took one look at the frightened Luhan off to the side and was about to lunge for him, but Yixing stepped in between them.

 

“Hey! We made a deal!”

 

“You tricked me!” the demon bellowed.

 

Yixing furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing what the demon was talking about. “I didn’t, I don't understand why you can’t take my soul, but you can’t take my friends’ because we only agreed on you taking mine.”

 

Yixing had made his point and stood his ground, so the demon gave one last murderous look before fading away.

 

“Wh-what…” Luhan began. “Yixing, we’re… we’re still alive!! The exit is right over there!!”

 

“Come on, let’s go!!”

 

Before anything else could step in their way, the two of them raced towards the opening with Moongchi at their heels. The black trees turned blue, until they were no longer bathed in the abyss that shrouded them for days.

 

Yixing began laughing when the light hit them and sunshine washed over them and Luhan belted out a victory cry. They threw off their packs to be able to run around freely with their arms wide open, and Moongchi barked happily, frolicking right beside them. Yixing tackled Luhan with a hug, and they both fell and rolled around the green grass, breathless and laughing.

 

They’ve made it out of the Dark Forest alive.

 

 

“What did the riddle say again?”

 

The two men and dog were lying in the middle of the meadow. Clouds hung over them, constantly moving but casting a huge shadow throughout all of the land. Yixing had wanted to continue walking through the meadow into the vast, seemingly endless landscape, but Moongchi wanted to stay put and Luhan was quick to agree with the dog.

 

“ _When the light first strikes o’er the meadow, look up towards the sky; it can disappear in the blink of an eye_ ,” Yixing recited to answer his friend’s question. “I think we don’t quite understand the riddle yet, so we just have to be patient.”

 

“Patient? We’re starving out here,” Luhan protested. “It’s been _days_ since we’ve made it out of the Dark Forest! I’m starting to see ham formations among the clouds!”

 

Yixing’s mouth fell open in disbelief. “If you were hungry, you should’ve said something!”

 

“You usually called the shots on when we take the food outta the bag!”

 

Yixing shook his head and opened his pack. “I was just rationing it because I thought we took a lot in the Dark Forest. It was no big deal though, I just wasn’t sure how long we were gonna be stuck here and I—woah,” he stopped, looking inside.

 

“What is it?” Luhan asked, trying to look over.

 

“There’s still so much in here, a lot more than I expected,” Yixing answered. “It was because I realized at one point that the bag got so much lighter than it was before, so I thought we were running out of food and supplies.”

 

Luhan stood up, went over to the pack, and lifted it with his own arms. “What are you talking about?! This is so heavy!!” he grunted out. “How did you manage to carry this the whole time?!”

 

Yixing furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but could only think about how much Luhan probably needed to work out. His friend set the pack back down on the ground and pulled out some fruits to eat. While Luhan was busy scarfing down whatever he could get his hands on, Yixing lied back down on the grass to stare up at the sky.

 

“I wish you were a sorcerer, life would be a lot easier right now,” Luhan mumbled. “You can probably just conjure as much food as we wanted and we wouldn’t have to worry about limiting ourselves.”

 

“Why don’t you just wish that _you_ were a sorcerer?” Yixing asked.

 

“Nah, too much work,” Luhan replied carelessly.

 

Yixing was about to retort when he saw a flashy glint in the sky — it was for a split second, but he still managed to catch sight of it. Moongchi started barking wildly and that was all that was needed to get Yixing riled up.

 

“Luhan! I think I saw it!”

 

“Saw what?”

 

“What we came for!”

 

“What!!” Luhan shouted in surprise and shot up from the ground. “What are we doing? What are we gonna do? What do we do? Where did you see it?”

 

Yixing pointed to the spot that was now covered again with the clouds, but he knew what he saw and where he saw it. “You can’t see it because you missed it, but it’s up there, past the clouds. Now we just have to figure out how to fly up there.”

 

Luhan bent down and picked up the hang gliders he had been carrying throughout the whole journey. “Guess it’s time to whip out these bad boys.”  

 

 

Once Moongchi was strapped onto the front of Yixing’s body, Luhan taught him how to hold the hang glider perpendicular to his body. He also taught him how to launch off and gain wind in order to spiral upwards. Luhan was a great teacher, but no matter how much he protested Yixing won’t be able to fly with the heavy backpack, the younger persisted with carrying it on his back.

 

“Ready?” Luhan called out, after a few practice rounds. “This time, we’re gonna go all the way past the clouds to where you saw the castle!”

 

Yixing nodded determinedly, and then kept focus as he looked forward to where he would run and kick off the ground.

 

“Ready, set…” Luhan counted down, holding a glider of his own. “Go!”

 

The two of them started sprinting as fast as possible, and used their momentum and position to pick up on the wind. After lifting off, they were in the air, circling around to gain height.

 

“We’re doing it!!” Yixing yelled out excitedly, over the wind blowing over his ears. “Let’s go!!!”

 

Because Luhan was a lot more experienced, he flew higher faster than Yixing and was soon about to breach the barrier of clouds that seemed to separate the ground from the heavens. Luhan was so close, that if he had reached out his hand, he could puncture a hole into that seemingly perfect blanket of fluff.

 

All of a sudden, Luhan let out a yell of surprise and Yixing witnessed in horror as his friend started descending, plunging back down to the earth. Luhan had lost control of the glider and untangled himself from it before he could be strangled midair.

 

Luhan was free falling.

 

“Luhan!!” Yixing cried out before nose diving down to save his friend, no matter how close he was to the cloud barrier. He angled his glider straight down, so he could cut through the air to reach Luhan faster than he was falling.

 

Luhan had his arms and legs spread out in an attempt to break his fall, and Yixing was able to reach out. His friend was so terrified of falling to his death, that his eyes were closed on his grimaced expression and he wasn’t screaming at all.  

 

“Grab my hand!” Yixing yelled out.

 

Luhan slowly opened his eyes and fought the wind to turn his head to see his best friend, then tried to find his hand. Once he got a hold of it, Yixing gripped on tightly and made a sharp turn, using the insane force of momentum and wind to go upwards.

 

Yixing wasn’t sure how he was doing it, but he was going straight up 50,000 feet. It wasn’t long when they were able to breach the cloud barrier.

 

They were all blinded for a split second but when their eyes adjusted, the magnificent sight of that big, ugly castle sitting atop the bed of clouds was in front of them.

 

“It’s over there! It’s really there! It’s just like in that sketch you have!” Luhan gushed excitedly. Yixing was completely speechless because they had actually found it, the mythological castle was right in front of their eyes.

 

“Fly over there, fly over!” Luhan encouraged his best friend. Yixing angled the glider so that they'd make their way to the castle. Once near the huge hunk of metal, Yixing circled around it, trying to find an entrance. All windows seemed to be closed, so he opted for finding a random door that had a wooden porch for them to land on.

 

“We made it!! It's real! It's really real and we're on it!!” Luhan exclaimed and Yixing gave off a huge grin.

 

Once settled safely, Luhan peered over the edge and saw the clouds, all clouds. He recalled how his glider suddenly failed on him and started to feel queasy.

 

“T-thanks for saving my life,” Luhan said to Yixing, finally getting over the high of seeing the castle and recalling that he almost plummeted to his death. “Without you, I’d just be fertilizer for the meadow by now.”

 

“We should go inside, you look like you’re gonna be sick if you stay out here any longer,” Yixing suggested and his best friend nodded vigorously in agreement, not being able to stand seeing clouds surrounding him.

 

Yixing folded the glider and placed it into the backpack. Yixing unstrapped Moongchi from his body and let the dog onto its own feet. Yixing turned to look at Luhan before nodding and slowly opening the door that was surprisingly unlocked.

 

The sight that Yixing and Luhan came to face with was not what they expected. The inside did not seem like that of a castle — it was more of a big, homey cabin. Even though it was a wide space, it was cluttered with a lot of things. Looking around, they couldn’t tell with one glance what kind of room they were in. They saw a cased opening that led to other rooms and decided to tip-toe their way to it, only to immediately freeze a few steps away from it when they heard voices.

 

“Eyy, don’t look so sad!”

 

“You try being a flame for the rest of your life, and let's see how you feel, you insensitive prick. I work here almost 24/7.”

 

“I'm sure Kyungsoo will find us soon. We're a huge clunk of metal floating in the sky. He can't miss us. When he finds us, we'll figure out what to do.” At this mention, Moongchi almost started sprinting into the room with the voices, but Yixing was able to grab hold of the dog and keep a good grip on him to save them from being discovered.

 

“I'm banished into the sky and Kyungsoo was probably turned into something that can't fly… What if he gave up? What if he’s living just fine? What if he figured out he doesn’t love me anymore? It’s been five years…” the dejected voice argued weakly.

 

Moongchi continued to desperately struggle out of his grasp, but Yixing was just as desperate not to get caught. Luhan was _also just as desperate_ so he helped out in keeping a hold on the dog.

 

“Aw, come on,” the voices continued, “don’t think like that… After everything both of you have been through, I don’t think Kyungsoo would feel that way.”

 

“I… I just miss him… I don’t know how much longer we have to wait until we see each other again…”

 

Moongchi finally stilled, but Yixing didn’t let his hold on the dog slack. He and Luhan continued to hold their breath and listen to the conversation go on next door.

 

“I also don’t know how much longer it’ll take until you guys are together again, I _am_ sure he’s out there looking for us. And when he does manage to get up here, all the waiting will be worth it.”

 

"..."

 

"I'm right, you just don't want to admit it."

 

"Shut up."

 

There was a short laugh before the voice said, "Alright, I'm gonna go read up on phokips before you yell at me again during our next session."

 

"Alright, I'm gonna take a nap."

 

Yixing and Luhan listened carefully for the two voices to exit out of the room, but they only heard one pair of footsteps leave. They waited to see if the other person would also leave, but there was no noise coming from the room at all. They waited and waited, but it was absolutely silent.

 

Unless it was the actual person's bedroom, Yixing deducted that they probably misheard and that both people probably left at the same time. He peeked around the case opening and saw that the room in question was actually a kitchen. There was no one in sight.

 

Yixing wasn't really sure who those voices were and if the owners of those voices would kick them out of the castle upon seeing them, so he tiptoed into the room as soundlessly as possible. Seeing that it was truly cleared of anyone, he gestured to Luhan to come slowly.

 

Luhan put Moongchi on the ground, who came straight into the kitchen, but he seemed a lot calmer now that the voices were gone. The dog sniffed around the kitchen curiously, as if looking for something.

 

Luhan was crossing past what looked like a stove when a huge flame flared up, causing him to yelp in fear.

 

 _"INTRUDERS!! INTRUDERS!!"_ the same voice from before shrieked like a siren. It resounded in the kitchen, but Yixing and Luhan didn't see anyone besides themselves. They covered their ears because it echoed so loudly, as if the whole castle were able to hear the warning. _"BREAKING AND ENTERING!! INTRUDERS!! INTRUDERS!!"_

 

"Who is it?! Where?!" a blond young man yelled out, running into the kitchen with a frying pan raised in his hand.

 

_"HERE!! HERE!!"_

 

Alarmed, the young man saw the two disarmed men, who were trying to cover their ears over the shouting. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

 

"Stop!! Stop, _stop_!!" the man shouted, causing the shrieking to halt. "Jongin, these aren't intruders, they're guests!! You're scaring them!"

 

"What are you talking about, they've broken into the castle!!! Jongdae, if that's not intruding, then what is it?!"

 

Yixing and Luhan finally removed their hands from their ears because they deemed it safe for their eardrums not to be shattered. They saw the young man arguing, but not who he was arguing with.

 

“I thought you were screaming about goblins or something!! This is the first time we’re having real company over!!” the man, who seemed to be called Jongdae, protested.

 

“What do you mean?! We have the occasional sorcerer that wants to hide their recipes… We also have that stork that drops off our food every month. But _they!_ " the voice emphasized, probably referring to Yixing and Luhan. "They’re uninvited!!”

 

“Don’t be like that, Jongin, be nice to our guests. We never asked those sleazy wizards to come over either. Now, stop acting like this,” he said sternly.

 

The voice of Jongin let out a groan of disapproval. "What were you going to the do with that frying pan anyway?! Cook them to death?!"

 

Jongdae grinned as if having an epiphany, "I was going to smash their faces in, but your idea sounds better!"

 

Yixing and Luhan could only look on at the whole thing curiously, feeling uncomfortable in the situation they were stuck with, but pleasantly surprised at how things turned out. For one, they weren't going to be sliced and sizzled up in that man's frying pan, and it didn't seem like they were going to be kicked out either.

 

"I am so sorry for the lack of manners," the blond man apologized. "My name is Jongdae, and I'm the prince of the Castle in the Clouds. My brother, Jongin, is on top of the stove over there," he introduced, gesturing towards the huge blaze on the stove.

 

"Hi," Jongin answered tersely, clearly not happy with the way the prince was treating them nicely.

 

"Don't mind him, he's just too flared up to chill," Jongdae said and Luhan and Yixing could hear Jongin scoff. "He's a fire demon by the way."

 

Luhan and Yixing waved nervously at the flame before it violently blazed, knocking Luhan off his feet from the fright and impact.

 

Jongdae could only shake his head at how rude his brother was being when Moongchi started going crazy again, barking up the stove at the flame. Given that Jongin was already in a nasty mood, he berated it.

 

"Never seen a talking flame before, now have ya?"

 

"Jongin," the prince sighed and frowned. "Could you not? You're gonna burn the ceiling again."

 

The fire demon simmered down while the prince turned to his two guests. Luhan had managed to pick himself up from the ground and was now standing meekly behind his best friend. "How about you two? What are your names? Please, do tell!"

 

"I'm Yixing," the younger introduced himself and looked behind to see Luhan seemingly too timid to speak up anytime soon. "This is my friend Luhan. We've actually been looking for the Castle in the Clouds for the past few days, so after all the difficulty we went through to get here, thank you for welcoming us."

 

"Hey, no problem! I think this is the first time humans have made it up here, so it’s amazing enough that you’ve made it! Please feel free to stay for as long as you’d like; I can’t imagine what you had to accomplish to get here,” Jongdae marveled. “I’ve been stuck up here in this castle for a couple of years, so I’ve no idea how it’s like outside.”

 

“Oh,” Yixing answered dumbly, not sure if he should say something to console the prince. Being trapped in one place in the middle of nowhere for years was probably not an ideal way to live.

 

“You guys must be starving if you journeyed all the way here!” Jongdae exclaimed. “Would you like something to eat?”

 

Before Yixing could respond, Luhan shot up. “Yes! Yes, please! That would be so nice!!”

 

Jongdae chuckled and walked to the food storage, beckoning Luhan to join him. He let the older choose what he wanted to eat and then walked up to Jongin.

 

“I hate you,” the fire demon seethed as the prince placed the pan on top.

 

“You let me do it when _I_ want to eat,” Jongdae said nonchalantly, not taking anymore of Jongin’s attitude.

 

“You're _using_ me to cook for uninvited guests,” Jongin retorted.

 

“Guests, nonetheless.”

 

When Luhan’s food was finished cooking, he scarfed it down as if he had been starved for years. Yixing shook his head because his friend literally ate before they flew up to the castle.

 

“I'm stuffed, satisfied, and now sleepy,” Luhan announced while yawning. “Is there a place to rest?”

 

Jongdae smiled graciously. “I can show you to a room. There are so many empty rooms, I hope we find one to your liking.”

 

Luhan and Yixing followed Jongdae as Moongchi stayed by the fire. Yixing figured that Moongchi must also be tired and the warmth coming from Jongin must’ve been comfortable.

 

All the rooms that Jongdae showed them were completely different. They all had a sort of magic to them, so Yixing was beginning to wonder if Jongdae was a sorcerer himself. One room had a dynamic view of the night sky on the ceiling and all around the walls while another had toys, such as airplanes and spinning tops, floating overhead.

 

Luhan chose a room that was piled high with books, it was almost as if the walls were made up of it and the ceiling was held up by it. Before he had been handed down the aircraft trade from his father, Luhan had always wanted to read books and maybe write one himself. Once he threw himself on the bed, he was able to fall asleep quickly.   

 

“Your journey must’ve been exhausting,” Jongdae wondered as he closed the door to Luhan’s room and turned to his guest. “Are you also not tired?”

 

Yixing smiled and shook his head. “Would it be alright to explore the castle?”

 

“Sure!” Jongdae agreed excitedly. “I can show you around! What would you like to see?”

 

Yixing didn’t know what he specifically wanted to see since the place was so huge; when he and Luhan were circling around the castle while looking for an entrance, there were so many rooms that he got a peek of, he wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to see them all today.

 

“I’ll just leave it up to you,” Yixing answered. “I’ll be happy to see anything here.”

 

Jongdae nodded and gestured for Yixing to follow him. He went back to the kitchen and spread his arms out, as if giving it a grand re-introduction. “This is the main kitchen, which is where I eat all my meals and where Jongin usually hangs out. Jongin could actually go anywhere in the castle, as long as it’s a safe spot for fire, such as a stove or fireplace. He mainly prefers a fireplace, but he has no choice in here.”

 

Jongdae led Yixing to a couple of rooms away from the kitchen. This seemed more like a living room, with a couch, table, and fireplace. “This is the lounge room; I mostly hang out here at night when it gets a little chilly, so Jongin keeps me company in his favorite fireplace.”

 

“The castle wasn’t what I expected,” Yixing admitted. “Usually, castles are grand and extravagant, but this place is… nice and cozy.”

 

The prince shrugged. “When Jongin and I first came here, it was completely empty. Over the years, sorcerers started using our castle as storage, so we did what we could with what was dumped here. There’s nothing else to do when you’re stuck up here, so we made the most out of it.”

 

Hearing about sorcerers brought up Yixing’s previous curiosity if Jongdae was one. Before he could ask, the prince interrupted his thoughts and continued leading the tour.

 

Jongdae showed Yixing many more spectacularly strange rooms; the ones that stood out the most to him were the room with the colors of the walls and furniture changing every time he looked away and the room with water walls. There was no sane explanation of how these rooms worked in the middle of the castle, which was, in turn, also in the middle of nowhere.

 

“I think I’ve seen enough for today,” Yixing told the prince after finishing two whole hallways of rooms.

 

“Ah, yes, you really must be exhausted now,” the prince said apologetically. “I must’ve gotten too carried away showing you around! Were there any rooms that caught your attention in particular and that you’d like to stay in?”

 

Yixing ended up choosing a rather ordinary room; it reminded him of his bedroom back at his home on top of the bakery. It was very simple, with a wardrobe, a side table, and a bed that had a patterned quilt neatly placed on it. The lampstand that was placed in one corner gave the room an orange, but homey tint and Yixing was really starting to feel the end of the day weighing him down and tiring him out.

 

“Thank you for showing me around,” Yixing told Jongdae. “I’ve been wanting to see this castle ever since my childhood, so being here is just still so unbelievable to me.”

 

The prince gave him a sad smile and before closing the door, he said, “Rest well, goodnight.”

 

 

Yixing and Luhan weren’t sure how long they wanted to stay in the castle. Although they didn't want to intrude, the prince did say that he was absolutely willing to offer his hospitality for as long as they wanted; they just didn’t know how long that was going to be. To be honest, Yixing didn’t even have a plan when he first set out to find the castle. He didn’t even expect people to be in it. Now that he’s found it, the amount of luck he has and his unpreparedness started to dawn on him.

 

Luhan thought that the least he could do to repay the prince’s kindness was to clean around. Jongdae insisted that Jongin’s magic took care of that and was the reason why all rooms were constantly spotless, but the fire demon shut his brother down and told Luhan that he’d be pleased if the human could clean — it would be less work for him as he’s already manning the course of the whole castle.

 

Jongdae rolled his eyes because of how Jongin smugly watched Luhan gather a dustpan and broom and set off to work.

 

“They’re our guests!!” the prince protested.

 

“Guests shmests,” Jongin mocked. “Go work on your potion brewing!”

 

Jongdae was the older brother, but he always felt bossed around by the flame. He guessed it was from the authority of running the castle and literally being his shelter, but Jongdae still thought it was unfair at times.

 

He gathered the ingredients and bottles he needed for this session, mentally bracing himself for Jongin’s yelling.

 

“You read up on phokips?”

 

“...”

 

“You said you were going to!” Jongin shouted.

 

“I was being a good host to our guests!!!” the prince whined. “I was gonna read it, but then they came and I had to show them around and make sure they were comfortable!!”

 

“Those are all excuses; you still needed to learn rangleweed, snackleheist, penkrods…”

 

“I’m not cut out for this,” Jongdae complained, already wanting to give up. “I can’t make your potions. I’ll just make myself useful by standing outside and waiting for a shooting star, so I can make a wish that Kyungsoo will find us and hopefully that will turn you back.”

 

“So you’re saying that, right now, you’re useless, right? Because I agree.”

 

Jongdae frowned, but reached out for an herb and started to cut it up. “You were so much nicer when Kyungsoo was around.”

 

“Who’s Kyungsoo?”

 

Jongdae turned around to see Yixing walking into the kitchen, stretching and yawning. He’d always go around the castle looking for new rooms to explore, so he’d always end up sleeping late. For the past few days, he was always the last one to wake up.

 

“Oh, he’s a human that Jongin and I knew before we came to this castle,” the prince answered. Jongin scoffed at that very condensed explanation, but Jongdae ignored him. “Breakfast is on the table.”

 

Yixing sat down and began eating, looking on at whatever they were doing. Jongin seemed to be telling Jongdae to do something and the prince would either cut something up or put it into a boiling pot.

 

“Are you cooking lunch already?” Yixing asked.

 

Jongdae let out a laugh. “No! I’m brewing a potion for Jongin!”

 

“Oh?” Yixing then remembered, “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask this, but are you a sorcerer?”

 

Jongdae stopped what he was doing and turned to Yixing. “Me? Nooo,” the prince denied. “Jongin is the born sorcerer in our family. But since all of his magic is put into maintaining the castle and keeping it airborne, he’s been trying to teach me how to do potions. We thought I’d be more exceptional than average because I might have sorcery in my blood, but I’m really bad. He always yells at me,” Jongdae whined.

 

As if on cue, the fire demon shouted out, “JONGDAE!”

 

_Sizzzzzzz! Poof!_

 

Jongin looked furious. If he could, he'd have steam coming out of his ears — instead, it was smoke because, you know, _flame._

 

"You were supposed to stir it _constantly_!!! Why'd you stop?! Now the potion is ruined!" Jongin shouted at Jongdae.

 

"Why are you yelling at me!! If you saw me stop, why didn't you say something earlier?!"

 

Jongin huffed, not wanting to admit that he wasn’t paying attention either. “In any case, you’ve wasted the ingredients and you’ve once again proved that you can’t do anything right.”

 

Yixing felt bad and he knew he didn’t really have a say yet in how Jongin should talk to Jongdae, but he didn’t want to sit still and watch the prince get yelled at and degraded either.

 

“Hey, can I try?” Yixing asked. “I think I can do it.”

 

Jongdae looked at the fire demon unsurely, but the flame agreed. “Alright, once won’t hurt. You have to follow everything I say, okay?”

 

Yixing nodded and took his place in front of the stove, while Jongdae cleaned his mess out of the pot. After rinsing it and drying it, he placed it back on the stove.

 

Yixing looked at Jongin, expecting some instructions, but then felt arms wrapped around him from the back. He jumped a little in surprise, but realized it was just Jongdae.

 

“Wh-what are you—”

 

He then felt something tighten around his waist and realized the prince was just putting an apron on him. He couldn’t stop himself from blushing and immediately turned back to face the stove, so that the prince couldn’t see him burning up.

 

“Alright, you’re all set,” Jongdae announced. “Good luck! Jongin’s a handful.”

 

Yixing nodded in acknowledgement and saw that Jongin conjured a flame underneath the pot.

 

“We’re starting… now,” Jongin declared. “Crush the clozelia with the side if your knife and then add it to the pot.”

 

Without hesitating, Yixing grabbed the pellet-like plant and pressed down on it with the flat side of the blade. The fire demon watched as he continued to follow instructions.

 

“Now tear off the leaves of all the haahlia and put it in the pot with a three second interval in between each addition.”

 

Yixing saw the round-leafed herb and started peeling it off the stem. He counted in his head after each leaf added, then waited for more orders.

 

“Now take the laracynth, strip the stem into 3 sections, and then cut those sections in half. Then just add it in After that, stir constantly.”

 

Jongdae watched in amazement because not once did the fire demon yell at Yixing. Yixing was following everything Jongin was telling him to do with any questions or uncertainty.

 

“Did you read up on all of these plants?” Jongdae asked.

 

“Don’t talk to him, he’s concentrating!!” Jongin scolded his brother.

 

The prince whined, saying that he wasn’t even the one brewing the potion, yet he was still getting yelled at. Yixing was in full focus mode, so he unintentionally didn’t respond to the prince.

 

“Alright, stop stirring,” Jongin commanded. “Now put that sprout of mabellia into the pot and if it dissolves, then the potion is done successfully.”

 

Yixing took the waxy sprout and threw it into the potion. He watched as the plant floated on the surface at first, then after a few seconds, disintegrate into nothing. Jongin smiled proudly while Jongdae looked at Yixing in shock.

 

“How did you do that?!” the prince exclaimed. “I’ve been working on potion-brewing for _months_ and haven’t gotten one potion down!”

 

“It’s because you have the concentration of a snupplebuff,” Jongin retorted, referring to a small animal with a brain the size of a pea. “You don’t have the focus that he has. You even tried to distract him!!”

 

“I wasn’t!! I was genuinely curious about how he could do this for his first time!!”

 

“It was an easy potion,” Jongin answered casually. “Good job, Yixing! Maybe I can ask you to make the potions from now on.”

 

Yixing looked worriedly at the prince, who was pouting at the fire demon for being replaced, and then said, “If Jongdae still wants to do it, then I don’t want to take his place…”

 

“Nah, it’ll actually take a lot of stress off my back, but I’m just wondering why I’m so bad at it even though I have sorcery in my blood… Maybe Jongin isn’t really my brother!!”

 

Yixing gave him a dimpled smile and reassured him, “I’m sure that’s not the case. You don’t have to be good at everything. I’m sure you’re good at something else other than potion-brewing.”

 

“Yes, _whining_ ,” Jongin interrupted. “He’s good at whining.”

 

Jongdae scowled at the fire demon before Luhan came barging into the kitchen, looking as if a bomb blew up in his face.

 

“I tried to clean the chimney,” he explained. “But I think I nudged something in there that wasn’t supposed to be touched and it all came falling down on me— anyways, I don’t think I want to clean anymore.”

 

Jongin snickered, but Luhan didn’t notice because it just sounded like embers crackling. Jongdae looked at his guest sympathetically, while Yixing was confused as to what his best friend was doing while he was asleep.

 

“I’m… gonna take a shower,” Luhan announced, dropping off the broom and dustpan in the corner of the kitchen, then heading out once again.

 

Yixing sat back down at the table with his unfinished breakfast and started eating again. Jongdae sat across him, squinting his eyes at him.

 

“What’s wrong?” Yixing asked.

 

“I’m just wondering how you did that,” the prince replied. “All those plants you needed to know…”

 

“He’s just better than you, let it go,” Jongin called out. “Yixing, if you’d like to eat anything else, tell me! I’ll let Jongdae cook it on me!”

 

Jongdae started whining again and Yixing couldn’t help but laugh and decline the offer. The prince had always been so welcoming to him and now that the fire demon was being nice to him — even playing a little favoritism — Yixing couldn’t help but feel like wanting to stay in the castle for a while longer.

 

 

“So?” Jongdae asked aloud, while walking into the kitchen with his arms spread up as if making the grandest entrance in his entire life. “What do you think?”

 

Luhan pulled back his face in surprise and Yixing almost dropped his utensils in his food. There was something so blatantly different about the prince, but they didn’t know whether it was a good or bad different.

 

“It’s…” Luhan began.

 

“It matches well with Jongin,” Yixing managed to say.

 

The prince had changed his beautiful blonde hair to a bright orange, so bright that if Jongdae had stuck his head out of the window, people wouldn’t have as hard of a time finding the castle.

 

“Do you like it?” Jongdae asked.

 

“Hmm,” Luhan thought, then decided, “Yeah. It’s different in a good way, I guess. You rock it.”

 

Yixing was still staring hard at the hair and it was actually starting to hurt his eyes. “It’s nice, but personally, I liked your blonde hair better,” he said with a friendly smile.

 

Jongdae’s face fell. “So, you don’t like it?”

 

Yixing’s eyes widened in alarm at the thought of offending the prince. “No, no, no! I do! It’s just that I liked the blonde hair on you more.”

 

Jongdae pouted and whined, “You’re the only one who said you didn’t like it, even Jongin said it was flashy!!”

 

“I never implied that it was a ‘good’ flashy,” Jongin muttered off to the side. “But I’m glad that you’re experimenting away from all those different shades of brown.”

 

“Our opinions don't matter. What matters is that _you_ like it,” Yixing reassured Jongdae. “If you don’t, you can always change it back.”

 

“But I have to wait!” the prince complained. He plopped himself down on a seat while Yixing and Luhan continued eating. He didn’t really feel in the mood to eat breakfast anymore after hearing Yixing’s opinion on his hair.

 

“I found a bunch of scraps around the castle, so I’m going to try to put it together and make it fly,” Luhan announced, standing up with his empty plate. He then vowed, “You will probably never see me until the invention is finished and successful!!” He quickly put his plate in the sink and dashed out of the room, impatient to start working on his project.

 

Yixing shook his head at his best friend because that was such a Luhan thing to do. He wouldn’t be able to sit still in one place for a long period of time, and it’s partially why Yixing was convinced to take him on the journey to search for the castle.

 

“We’re literally in a _flying_ castle,” Jongin said. “Why does he want to make something else fly?”

 

“Back in our hometown, he designed all kinds of gliders and sold aircraft parts. He’s very intrigued with the idea of flying,” Yixing explained. “He didn’t believe that the Castle in the Clouds existed because he didn’t think that something so huge could fly.”

 

 _“Magic”_ , Jongin said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

“Our town didn’t have magic at all,” Yixing continued. “Our town is isolated from all the other districts and no magical folk really visit us.

 

“Hmm, then that rules out a possibility of how you were able to do that potion,” the prince frowned. “I’d thought maybe you had some magic in you; so I guess magic doesn’t really gauge how well you can do potions.”

 

“You’re still thinking about that?” Yixing laughed. “I honestly just followed Jongin’s instructions and my instincts with that.”

 

Jongdae put on his thinking face and Yixing thought he was still just analyzing how the potion was possible to be brewed by a person doing it their first time.

 

“... So you really don’t like the hair?” Jongdae asked, leaning in and pointing at the bright orange mess. Yixing could only laugh and playfully pushed the prince’s head away.

 

 

Yixing helped Luhan all night long with his aero-invention, and he just wanted to sleep. It was already morning when he gave up with being Luhan’s right hand because the man was like a machine running non-stop.

 

Yixing clocked out and wanted to sleep in his room, but Moongchi was already up, barking at Jongin again. He could hear the noise in the kitchen all the way from his room. Even though he was extremely exhausted, he couldn’t fall asleep with all the racket.

 

He groaned as he dragged himself out of bed and walked past the kitchen.

 

“Scram, puppy!!” Jongin blasted, causing Moongchi to whimper and scamper away.

 

Yixing stared at the fire demon in disbelief. “You scared my dog.” He paused before saying, “You couldn’t have done that a little earlier?”

 

“Wow,” Jongin responded, not knowing what else to say. He didn’t really expect him to be glad that he might have just scarred his pet.

 

“I’m sorry, I was just trying to get some sleep, but Moongchi was too, too loud,” Yixing explained. “I’m… I didn’t sleep all night. I’m just gonna go outside on the balcony, maybe I can get sleep there.”

 

Yixing was relieved to see there was a lounge chair on the balcony; he immediately threw himself on it and covered his face with a sheet. He fell asleep to the sound of the wind gently rushing past and the nice breeze blowing on him…

 

“What are you doing out here?”

 

Yixing shot up, the sheet falling down from his face and onto his lap. Prince Jongdae was standing in front of the door that led back into the house; he had a questioning look on his face.

 

“I was… sleeping…” Yixing answered. He wasn’t sure how many hours he managed to squeeze in, but he did feel better.

 

“Is that why you didn’t come to breakfast? You were here this whole time?”

 

“Yeah, I was up all night helping Luhan with his invention.”

 

“Speaking of Luhan, he didn’t show up to breakfast either…”

 

As if on cue, the door shot open and Luhan came barging in, holding a winged motor-looking thing. “This is perfect!!”

 

“Your invention?” Yixing asked.

 

“No, this spot!! I've been looking for place to chuck this baby off of but I only came across windows, which are a little too narrow for my taste.”

 

“What's he gonna do?” Jongdae whispered to Yixing.

 

“Experiment,” the older answered. “Watch him.”

 

Without warning, Luhan threw his work off the balcony. All three of them watched as it stayed in the air for a good five seconds, and then plummeted down through the clouds. The aero-inventor was cheering, clapping happily as the scrap of metal dropped.

 

Prince Jongdae stared at Luhan as if he’d just dropped his life’s work into a bonfire. The man seemed a little too calm for someone who’s just thrown away something he's worked on for week. “Did… didn’t you need that?”

 

“Need it for what?”

 

“I don’t know, need it to further develop it and make it fly better?” the prince asked, finding Luhan’s actions completely bizarre.

 

“Nah! Do you know many scraps there are around your place?” Luhan asked happily. “I’m set for life!”

 

The oldest dashed back inside the castle and disappeared. Yixing laughed while Jongdae was still confused, not really knowing how the concept of experimentation worked.

 

“Luhan’s gonna be fine,” Yixing reassured the prince. “He knows _exactly_ what he’s doing.”

 

At that moment, a metal clang could be heard throughout the castle.

 

“Okay, maybe not _exactly_ ,” Yixing admitted, while Jongdae raised his eyebrow at him. He rushed to shut the door once Jongin started yelling at Luhan for making too much noise and mess. Jongdae paid no mind to it all and only stared longingly over the edge of the balcony, as if looking for the discarded invention even though the castle probably flew way past it already.

 

“I’m envious of that scrap of metal,” the prince said out of nowhere.

 

“Hm? What’s wrong?” Yixing asked, confused by the sudden and strange confession.

 

“It’s just that,” Jongdae began, “that object was so easily able to let go of. It was able to get away without anything holding it back.”

 

“So… you're saying _you_ want to be thrown away?”

 

“No!” the prince laughed while answering; as fast as Yixing’s confusion made him grin, the smile from his face dropped and his tone turned into one of longing. “I just want to be free like that; I want to fly away from the castle, even if it’s just for five seconds. I don't want to be bound to something for the rest of my life.” 

 

“Wait, what do you mean by all of that?”

 

Jongdae sighed. “I’m bound to this castle. I can never leave.”

 

Yixing frowned, but then thought of an idea. Without another word, he opened the door and rushed back into the castle, leaving the bewildered prince. In a few moments, he came back with the hang glider that he used to get into the castle into the first place.

 

“Maybe you can use this! You can catch the wind and fly, maybe even land down there when you learn how to use it!” Yixing said excitedly, gesturing to the earth past the clouds.

 

Jongdae smiled sadly and Yixing was taken aback by that response. “It’s so sweet of you to think of something for me, but it’s not possible…”

 

“Of course it is! Luhan and I can teach you, he taught me in five minutes,” Yixing told the prince.

 

Jongdae shook his head and gestured the older to come back to the balcony. Yixing dropped the hang glider and came over, waiting to see what Jongdae would do.

 

The prince stuck his hand out over the balcony and kept it there. Confused, Yixing did the same thing, his hand passing over the edge.

 

“You have no problem, right?” Jongdae asked.

 

“No problem with what?”

 

“Put your hand on top of mine,” the prince requested. Yixing did what he was told and couldn’t help the butterflies that congregated in his stomach. Being this close to a super nice and pretty good-looking prince and basically touching his hand wasn’t helping with Yixing’s calm composure. Through his nervousness, he was able to hear the younger say, “Now push my hand forward.”

 

With his hand on top of the back of Jongdae’s hand, he pushed and he could feel something pushing back on them. It was like there was an invisible barrier that was preventing Jongdae’s hand from going past the edge of the balcony.

 

“Do you see why it's impossible now?”

 

“What is that?” Yixing dared to ask.

 

“It’s an invisible barrier to prevent me from leaving the castle — my brother and I are cursed. He was transformed into a fire demon and is basically shackled into keeping the castle alive. Along with him, I am also trapped in here.”

 

Yixing’s eyes widened in shock and his mouth almost fell open. “Is there a way the curse can be lifted?”

 

Jongdae shook his head. “We don't know. We’ve been trapped here for years now and we have no idea. All we could do was just wait for Jongin’s lover and see if his arrival will set us free.”

 

“His name is Kyungsoo, right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

After that explanation, Yixing didn’t think the prince relating to that scrap of metal was so strange after all. It made complete sense, and what he felt wasn’t pity for the prince but relief for being able to understand him.

 

“You know,” Yixing began, “growing up, I almost never left my house because I felt like I needed to do too many things. I needed to take care of plants, my work, my grandma, chores, too many things to name. I’ve always wanted to travel and explore, but I felt bound to home by responsibility.”

 

“So what happened? You’re here now.”  

 

“My grandma passed away and when I was cleaning her stuff, I came across a book about the castle in the sky. Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted to find this place and coming across that book made me remember that. So, I dropped everything and came looking for this place, and luckily found it.”

 

Jongdae eyes sparkled with fascination at the story. “That's amazing! I'm so glad you were able to find the courage and make it here. I find it admirable that you were able to drop everything and follow what you wanted, I can only hope to be able to do the same one day.”

 

He turned away from Yixing to look at the vast expanse of the sky. He wanted to be able to grab at the clouds and feel the wind past the boundaries of the castle. He wanted to step on green grass, rather than on cold stone or a wooden floor.

 

Yixing could only watch helplessly as the prince yearned and ached for freedom, but he didn't want to stay helpless. He wanted to give Jongdae what he wanted, because if the prince wanted to leave after so long, he deserved to get away from this place.

 

He wanted to take Jongdae away to escape, to explore, to fly, _to live._

 

 

“Doesn't Moongchi seemed depressed to you?” Yixing asked Luhan.

 

They looked at the dog who was lying down next to the fireplace. Moongchi was usually barking at Jongin, but after the fire demon had yelled at the dog so many times, it finally stopped.

 

“Jongin, I think you traumatized our dog with all your yelling and your blow up flares,” Luhan accused.

 

Jongin scoffed, not really caring what he did to Moongchi. After the barking stopped, the fire demon learned to ignore the dog that was constantly staying by his side. Whether he was on the kitchen stove or in the lounge room’s fireplace, Moongchi would find him and quietly settle near his hearth.

 

But he never thought the dog would become depressed. He just thought of it as the barking being stopped and finally having a peace of mind. _Did the dog even understand that he was just a talking ball of fire?!_

 

“Maybe a good bath will cheer him up,” Yixing suggested. “We can give him a haircut, too; he really needs one…”

 

“That’s not a bad idea,” Luhan agreed. “Let’s ask Jongdae if he’ll be okay with us using one of the bathrooms to wash him up.”

 

The older picked the dog up, who didn’t really struggle to get away. He was expected to put up a fight because of the word “bath” or because they were taking him away from Jongin — the dog seemed to want to be near the fire all the time.

 

“JONGDAE!!” Luhan called out while walking down the hall, Yixing following closely behind. “JONGDAE!!”

 

“Yes?” the prince answered, sticking his head out of one of the rooms. “What is it?”

 

“We were thinking of giving Moongchi a bath,” Yixing told him. “Would it be alright if we used a bathtub in one of the bathrooms?”

 

“Oh, sure! I don’t mind,” Jongdae answered good-naturedly. “I’ve never given a dog a bath before! Can I help?” he asked, specifically looking at Yixing.

 

Luhan seemed to notice this and he backed away. “I’ve never given a bath to a dog before either, but sure, you can help Yixing. I’ll just put Moongchi in the bathtub on the second floor.”

 

Jongdae flashed a bright smile. “Great! I’ll just change because this probably isn't the best cloths to give a dog a bath in,” he said, gesturing to what he was wearing. He then went back inside his room, closing the door behind him.

 

Luhan started to make his way to the bathroom, while went to find some chairs to place in front of the bathtub. When they were settled in the bathroom and Moongchi was set down in the tub, Luhan turned to Yixing.

 

“So,” he said with a suggestive tone, “you and Prince Jongdae have been hanging out together a lot recently.”

 

Yixing smiled, “Yeah, I like being around him. I’m pretty sure he also likes my company.”

 

“Are you sure you like _being around_ each other or you just _like_ each other?”

 

Yixing could feel his heart rate slowly starting to get faster as he stammered, “W-well, what am I supposed to do when you lock yourself in a room to work on your flying machine? Lie around alone all day?”

 

Luhan shrugged. “You’re right, fair enough,” he conceded as Jongdae arrived. Luhan got up from his seat and let the prince sit in it. Before leaving, he shot a wink at Yixing, who only rolled his eyes at his friend’s unnecessary action.

 

“So, do you know how to give him a bath?” Jongdae asked.

 

“Nope,” Yixing replied, “but I’m assuming it’s the same as how humans do it.”

 

He reached over to turn the water on; he let his hand feel the water as it streamed out from the showerhead before dousing Moongchi. The dog did not scramble all over the tub and try to avoid the water, he just stood frozen in his spot as if not knowing what to do.

 

After Moongchi was drenched from head to toe, Yixing grabbed the shampoo and told Jongdae to hold his hands out. The prince did as he was told as the older squeezed the shampoo out onto his hands.

 

“Now, you can just rub it all over him,” Yixing told him. “You can do his front half and I’ll do the bottom. Make sure to get his ears and beneath his eyes!”

 

After Moongchi was thoroughly sudded, Yixing handed the showerhead to Jongdae and let him water the dog down. He rubbed the shampoo out of Moongchi’s coat as the prince held the water.

 

“All done!”

 

Jongdae cheered as the water was shut off. “That was fun!”

 

“Yeah, now we just have to dry him off—” He was interrupted as Moongchi decided to take it upon himself to give the two baths of their own. The dog shook himself and all the water from his fur splattered onto them, Yixing and Jongdae yelling at him to stop.

 

“NOOOO, MOONGCHI!!” Jongdae wailed.

 

Yixing looked down at the dog, who actually seemed pleased with himself. His hair was all puffed up and tangly, despite still being soppily wet. “We need to brush him and give him a haircut.”

 

“Oooh, will that also be fun?” Jongdae asked excitedly. “I wanna help with that, too!”

 

Yixing smiled as he grabbed a towel and wrapped Moongchi in it. He placed him on the bathroom counter and started drying him off with the towel. “Can you find some scissors?”

 

Jongdae opened a drawer and reached into it. “Got it.”

 

“Okay, I’ll dry him off a little more and then we’ll brush him. You can give him the haircut if you want.” Jongdae nodded happily as he waited for Yixing to finish with the dog. Once dried off and brushed, Jongdae came towards Moongchi with the scissors.

 

“We’re gonna make you all nice and handsome,” the prince cooed as he started snipping off bouts of fur.

 

It took about ten minutes for Jongdae to work his way up from the tail to the body, all the way to the face. He left the ears alone, because they were floppy and cute, but he knew he had to do something about the eyes. He cut off what seemed like bangs to the dog, revealing two large, beautiful brown eyes.

 

“We can see his eyes now!!” Jongdae exclaimed, turning towards Yixing. “They’re bigger than I thought! Aren’t dogs eyes supposed to be a little smaller than people’s?”

 

At that, Moongchi dashed off down the counter and onto the floor; Jongdae and Yixing yelled in surprise, too taken aback to have been able to catch him in time. Moongchi ran out of the door and made his way straight to the kitchen where Jongin resided on the stove.

 

Jongin let out a scream when he saw the little dog running around, not recognizing him without as much hair. “THERE’S A HAIRLESS RAT SCURRYING ACROSS THE FLOOR!!”

 

Yixing and Jongdae came rushing into the kitchen afterwards, just in time to see Moongchi jump onto the kitchen counter and stopping right next to the fire demon. Without barking, the dog sat still and stared at the flame.

 

Jongin was bewildered with Moongchi’s actions and couldn’t help but look back, straight into the dog’s wide eyes which were completely covered by fur before…

 

_“Kyungsoo…”_

 

Moongchi barked, startling Yixing and Jongdae who were already confused with why Jongin was saying the name.

 

“Kyungsoo!!”

 

The dog barked again happily, wagging his tail for the first time in weeks. If Jongin wasn’t made of fire, he could cry tears of pure joy right now.

 

“Guys, it’s Kyungsoo!!” Jongin exclaimed. “Kyungsoo’s here, he found us!!”

 

“Moongchi is Kyungsoo?!” Jongdae blurted out. “He’s been here this whole time?!”

 

“Yes, it’s Kyungsoo!! His eyes, I recognize them!!” Jongin explained, then turned back to his beloved. “I can’t believe they turned you into a dog,” he sobbed, “Heartless bastards, they’re gonna pay for this!!”

 

Moongchi whimpered and Jongin resorted to cooing at the dog, trying to make him feel better. It was a 180 degree turn of events, no one had expected this to ever happen.

 

“So what do we do now? Why aren’t you guys turning back?”

 

Jongin and Moongchi paused, realization gracing their features. As Moongchi, Kyungsoo had been in the castle for a while now, but nothing had happened. Maybe it wasn’t what needed to break the curse.

 

“You’re right… why didn’t anything happen? It should have happened when he set foot in the castle, or at least when we realized who he was…” Jongin sulked. “Maybe it needs to be undone by a sorcerer…”

 

“Well, at least the hardest part is over,” Jongdae said, trying to make better of the situation. “We found Kyungsoo!! We didn’t even know if it was possible to ever see him again!”

 

Jongin frowned. “We are so close, yet still so far. Do you know how painful this is? The whole Sorcerers’ Society is against us. No one will be willing to change us back and set us free.”

 

Jongdae fell silent as Jongin made his case. His brother was right. They were largely cursed by the whole mass of sorcerers, everyone damning them to life in this castle.

 

Yixing could only watch from afar, being an outlier of this situation, not fully understanding what was going on. He wanted to help, but he didn’t know how. He watched as Jongin’s smile had faded away and Moongchi’s tail slowly drooped.

 

Jongin disappeared from the stove and Moongchi was able to locate him in the lounge room. Settling next to the burning fireplace, Moongchi laid his head down on his paws, letting Jongin’s warmth wash over him. Yixing and Jongdae could do nothing but let the two be alone together.   

 

 

The room that had music notes moving across the walls had always fascinated Yixing. He still couldn’t believe all the magical elements that this castle housed and there wasn’t a single day since he came here that he was bored.

 

He loved to hear the music softly playing across the room; it was as if the walls itself were softly whispering the melodies from behind. The room was filled with instruments and if someone played a tune on one of the instruments, the walls would start playing along.

 

Yixing was trying to find that room, but he couldn’t remember the exact floor it was on and which door it was behind. He opted to searching through the halls he wasn’t sure of and opening every single door.

 

There were multiple rooms he went through — he searched for about thirty minutes — before he came across one he was completely unfamiliar with. As soon as he opened the door, vibrant colors hit him right in the face and he was washed over with a tropical heat wave.

 

There were plants everywhere, but there seemed to be a clear, distinct path on the floor. Yixing recognized some of these plants as ones that he grew back at home. Oranges, pinks, reds, violets, yellows, everything lit up the room and Yixing wanted to stay and examine every single flower, but something was telling him that there was something at the end of the path. He walked on, not knowing exactly how big this room was — or maybe the magic of this castle was that the room was not limited by space capacity.

 

From afar, he saw that he was about to reach a corner of the room — he assumed that that was where the little path ended. As he neared it and rounded around a path corner, he saw the last thing he’d expect.

 

Jongdae was sitting on a wide chair that was surrounded by and decorated with flowers. Huge leaves hung from above him and Yixing could see roses, tulips, and fruits such as bananas, grapes, and apples at each side. He had a long blue-and-red-striped coat that almost reached the floor draped over him. His eyes were closed; Yixing wasn’t sure whether he was sleeping or meditating, but what he was sure of was that the sight of the prince was absolutely and breathtakingly beautiful.

 

He hadn’t realized he forgot to breathe and let out a slight hiccup noise, prompting the prince to open his eyes.

 

“Yixing?” Jongdae called out. “What are you doing here?”

 

“I… I—uh,” the older stammered, trying to explain himself straight out from an interrupted daze. “I was looking for the room with music, but I, um, came across this room. I was drawn in by all the colors and plants and I just wanted to see everything in here. I didn’t expect to run into you here out of all rooms!”

 

Jongdae laughed, his eyes crinkling at the edges. “Yeah, the room does that. Besides the balcony, this is another place where I can rest.”

 

“I’m sorry I always seem to barge into your quiet places,” Yixing apologized, but Jongdae shook his head.

 

“It’s okay, I actually prefer your company! I shouldn’t be resting this much anyway, because I don’t really do anything.”

 

With that, they fell into a silence — Yixing knew that Jongdae only rested a lot to pass time. The prince mostly seemed to do it when Yixing was busy with Luhan or when he wanted to go exploring by himself. He figured that the prince would feel bored going through each room of the castle, but maybe next time he’ll ask him to come along.

 

“I can actually recognize some of the flowers in here,” Yixing admitted. At that, Jongdae seemed to lift himself off the back of his chair, as if he was shooting up with adrenaline and enthusiasm.

 

“Do you think you can name some for me?” the prince asked excitedly.

 

Yixing was taken aback from the over-elation, but he nodded a sure anyway. “Uhh, those by your chair, I recognize as roses and tulips.”

 

Jongdae nodded, “Yes, all humans probably know how roses and tulips look like. Tell me more!”

 

“Um,” the older stammered, looking for familiar plants. He saw a pink and blue sharp-looking plant and pointed at it. “That looks like laceodils,” he said. “And these look like carnolias,” he pointed at a round-petaled hot pink flower.

 

Yixing ventured back down the path and Jongdae got up, following him with a bright expression. “Panpines, butterpalms, and arumci,” he listed, pointing at all the flowers he named. “Foxbeards, yalows, and rothpeas.”

 

“I think that’s enough,” Jongdae stopped him and declared. “Actually, more than enough. You need to follow me.”

 

Without thinking, the prince took Yixing’s hand and led him back through the path, out of the room, and all the way into the kitchen where Jongin was. The fire demon, along with the dog next to him, were surprised by the sudden intrusion.

 

“Jongin, Yixing could name all the plants in that room,” the prince told his brother eagerly.

 

“What room?” the clueless fire demon asked.

 

“The room where all those sorcerer’s dumped random seeds. You know what’s in it, you know every nook and cranny of this castle!!”

 

“What about that room?” Jongin asked, not seeing Jongdae’s point.

 

“I said, he could recognize all those plants!!” Jongdae insisted. “Remember how he performed well with the potion brewing and how he managed to even get up here in the first place? It all makes sense!”

 

Jongin’s eyes widened and he slowly turned to Yixing.

 

“Uhhhh,” the oldest managed to let out. “What’s going on?”

 

“Yixing, what was it that you said you did before you came here?” the fire demon asked.

 

“I ran a bakery shop and tended plants with my grandma. Some of the plants from that room was what we grew, but we never showed it or sold it to anyone. I think my grandma just wanted to do it as a pastime and she let me in on it,” Yixing explained.

 

“And… and… what was the name of your grandma?” Jongin asked, anticipating the answer.

 

Yixing looked at the fire demon with a confused expression, brows furrowed and all, because he didn’t see where they would get anywhere with his grandma’s name. When Jongin looked like he was about to explode, Yixing decided that he’d better tell.

 

“Zhang Xiaoxing.”

 

Jongin let out a yell, and his flame swelled ten times his height, just like it did when they first met. Yixing couldn’t tell if it was a distressed yell or an excited one, but he seemed to be the only one that was startled. Jongdae, too, seemed ecstatic upon hearing the name.

 

“Do you know what this means?!” the fire demon exclaimed.

 

“No…?”

 

“Your grandma was an oracle and one of the greatest sorcerers of all time!!”

 

The words didn’t process in Yixing’s head; he quickly shook his head to snap out of it and his eyes widened in shock. “Um, I think you got the wrong person, because our whole lives, we lived in a small town that had no magic whatsoever.”

 

“Yixing, those plants in the room that you said you grew,” Jongdae started. “They can only be immediately recognized and grown by sorcerers. There’s also a reason why you can brew potions without studying beforehand.”

 

“He’s right,” Jongin agreed. “Those are the basic traits of a sorcerer. Yixing, you’re a sorcerer.”

 

“I’ve never performed magic in my entire life,” Yixing tried to reason with them.

 

“But you have,” Jongin told him. “Not intentionally, but you have. Your grandma was so powerful, a great amount of magic must’ve been passed down to you,” he said in awe.

 

“Think about it, maybe some strange occurrences that happened to you should make sense now,” Jongdae said softly, putting a hand on Yixing’s shoulder to comfort him.

 

Yixing did think about it — like the time during the journey where he thought their pack was emptying because it seemed to get lighter and more spacious. Luhan didn’t know squat what he was talking about because the pack was heavy to him. Yixing could put in and take out _a lot_ more stuff than what the bag looked like it should fit. And the time where Luhan almost fell to his death and Yixing managed to fly 50,000 feet up after shooting straight down.

 

“Being a sorcerer is not a bad thing,” Jongdae said.

 

“No, it’s not that,” Yixing assured. “It’s just hard to take in. My grandma said nothing about all this.”

 

“She was part of the curse,” Jongin explained. “As an oracle, she predicted about 30 years ago that a strong wizard would break the rules by falling in love with a human. She defended us saying that it’d be wrong to punish us, so she was stripped of most of her powers and banished from the Sorcerer’s Society.”

 

Yixing was completely baffled beyond his wildest dreams. Just a few months ago, he was sitting in his bake shop, folding dough, water plants, and going through a routine and boring life. Now, all this news was coming at him like a freight train going 1928392 miles per hour.

 

“Yixing, I’m going to ask you of an enormous favor, I will owe you my life,” Jongin said seriously. “I think you’re the only one who can turn Kyungsoo and me back.”

 

“What?!” Yixing squawked. “No, I can’t do that. “I’ve never done something like that, what if I mess up and Kyungsoo comes back with three eyes and you with four legs!”

 

“No, trust me,” Jongin said. “I will walk you through everything. Please, Yixing?”

 

Yixing gave a long look towards the sincere fire demon and another at Moongchi/Kyungsoo, who was giving his best puppy dog eyes. Finally, his eyes landed on Prince Jongdae, who seemed to have the calmest expression out of the three of them.

 

“You can choose what you want,” Jongdae told him. “If you don’t want to do it, it’s fine, I’ll help them understand your decision.”

 

Hearing that made Yixing feel better. He suddenly remembered the feeling of helplessness; wanting to get Jongdae out of this castle, watching from afar as Jongin and Kyungsoo realized their curse wasn’t broken. Yixing didn’t want to stand back and not do anything anymore.

 

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

 

— — —

 

“You guys!! I made progress on my invention!!” Luhan shouted out, running into the living room before stopping in his tracks. “Wait a minute, did I miss something big here? Why do you guys look like you’re summoning devil when we have a fire demon right here?”

 

Yixing rolled his eyes as he finished chalking up the last of the celimonic circle on the ground.

 

“You missed a bunch!” Jongdae exclaimed. “Yixing’s a sorcerer and he’s going to turn Jongin and Kyungsoo back into their human forms.”

 

“WHAT!”

 

“Yeah!” Jongdae answered enthusiastically.

 

“No, _what?!_ You said that way too fast for my tiny brain to comprehend. Yixing’s a what and is gonna do what now?”

 

“Just watch!”

 

Yixing went over to the fireplace and with his bare hands, picked up a piece of firewood that Jongin clung onto. If Jongdae had done it, he’d either have been burned or would’ve had to wear fire resistant gloves, but Yixing seemed completely fine and unbothered by the scorching heat.

 

Luhan stared, not believing his eyes. “What about the castle? And how’s he d—”

 

“Shh!” the prince interrupted him.

 

Yixing placed Jongin in the middle of the circle, where Moongchi was already sitting patiently. The dog and the fire demon gave each other one last look of reassurance before turning towards Yixing.

 

“Just like I told you,” Jongin reminded Yixing of all the steps he had to do. “I believe in you.”

 

“Everyone close your eyes,” Jongdae warned. “Jongin and Kyungsoo might come back naked.”

 

Everyone — meaning just Luhan — covered their face with their hands. Yixing and Jongin nodded at each other, having faith in one another as everything was already said and done.

 

Yixing took a step back and closed his eyes. He bent down in front of the circle and placed both hands on the ground. Everyone watched — including Luhan, who was now peeking through his fingers — as Yixing chanted something in his head.

 

Within the next moment, the circle on the ground lit up, flaring as brightly as Jongin, blinding everyone in the room. For a brief moment, the whole room was a pure white, no one could see anything that was happening.

 

The next, two bodies were standing in the middle of the circle.

 

Everyone stared in awe and shock as they realized what had just happened. Kyungsoo and Jongin were looking at each other, not believing that they were finally free from the curse. Without another word, they immediately pulled each other into an emotional embrace, finally feeling each other in the other’s arms after _years._

 

“Aaaand, you were right, they’re naked,” Luhan said, ruining the moment. Jongdae threw towels at the two lovebirds to cover themselves up and they graciously took it. After wrapping the towels around themselves, Jongin and Kyungsoo made their way to Yixing, who offered them a relieved smile.

 

“We cannot ever repay you for what you’ve done for us,” Jongin thanked him. Kyungsoo also bowed, expressing his gratitude.

 

“There’s no need,” Yixing told them. “I’m so happy that I was able to help.”

 

And when he saw Jongin hug his brother next, Yixing definitely knew he had done something right. The genuine smiles of happiness on Jongdae, Jongin, Kyungsoo, and even Luhan’s faces were worth it all.

 

Giving everything up and searching for the Castle in the Sky was worth everything and was the best decision he’s made in his entire life — this is what he came for.

  


 

Jongin hummed along to the sizzling oil on the pan as he placed some eggs on it. For once, he was glad to be cooking — as the person placing the food on the pan, not as the source of heating the food.

 

Kyungsoo sat at the table, waiting for breakfast to be served. As Jongin carried the pan over to the table with the cooked eggs, Kyungsoo started drooling.

 

“Soo, please, not at the table,” Jongin groaned.

 

“Sorry, I’m just really hungry,” he said, scratching behind his ear.

 

“Save some for the rest of them,” Jongin warned, eyeing him before turning his back to cook some more food. Kyungsoo pouted before taking _just one_ egg and putting it on his plate. He’s a good man who will leave food for his companions.  

 

“I was the one who usually cooked before everything happened,” Kyungsoo complained. “Why won’t you let me cook now?”

 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Jongin said in a tone that made it seem like he really did know. “Maybe because you’d probably eat everything before it made it to the table? Maybe because you said you just wanted to throw everything into one pot and mix it into something that looked like _dog hash_.”

 

Kyungsoo’s frown ran even deeper. “I can’t help it!! I have these impulses!!”

 

“Is Kyungsoo acting like a dog again?” Jongdae asked as he sleepily walked into the kitchen. He was followed by Yixing and Luhan, who decided to show his face after several nights again. He had announced that he was super close to perfecting his invention and he’d have it ready to showcase soon.

 

“Acting? Kyungsoo is basically still a dog,” Jongin answered.

 

Jongdae, Yixing, and Luhan settled at the table, taking an egg each for themselves. Kyungsoo smiled happily at them, as if expecting to be praised. After a few minutes, he didn’t get said praise and started to get sulky again. When Jongin put down bacon on the table, Kyungsoo was the first to grab it because he was petty like that.

 

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin cried out in disbelief. When the person in question knew it sounded like he was going to be in trouble, he pulled out the puppy dog eyes. “Don’t use that on me, it’s not fair, it’s a _lethal_ weapon!”

 

Jongdae laughed, wanting to make fun of his brother for being whipped, but he was interrupted by something huge — too quick to see — flying in through their window. Once the _thing_ landed, they saw that it was the stork carrying the huge box of supplies that came every month.

 

“Oh, our food’s here!” Jongdae exclaimed getting up to greet the stork. He opened the box and checked to see if everything they needed was there.

 

Jongin didn’t show the same respect, snidely making a displeased face. He slowly walked over to the stork with an attitude, as if calculating what he was going to say.

 

“Notice anything different?” the sorcerer said, as if he would get an answer from the bird. The stork tilted his head, but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

“It’s the number of people, the lack of dogs, and one less fire demon!” Jongin revealed and outright bragged, “That’s right, Kyungsoo and I are human again!”

 

Jongdae rolled his eyes at his brother and Yixing and Luhan exchanged confused glances. They didn’t know what he was doing, but whatever it was, he continued doing it.

 

“You sorcerers thought that you could punish us and separate us, but nope! We’ve found each other again and we’re going to stay together forever. And you all can’t do anything about it!”

 

There was no response from the bird, and it made Jongin seem crazier.

 

“All of you guys can’t compare to my knowledge about the world of magic, you thought you can curse me and damn me, but my love, Kyungsoo, and I prevailed! I’m one of the greatest sorcerers of our time, so they felt threatened and tried to get rid of me, huh?! Don’t mess with me! I’ll make them pay back twice what they made me suffer!”

The stork pecked at the ground before flying out of the window. Jongin hurriedly made his way to the window it flew out of and shouted one last taunt, “You can tell all that to the Council of Wizard Wackos!”

 

The sorcerer watched as the stork continued to fly away, but saw that it suddenly circled back around. He grew confused because why would the stork fly all the way out there only to turn around if his direction was the other way. Jongin scoffed at how stupid the stork was until he realized that it was coming _straight at him_.

 

As he saw the stark rapidly rotate like a spinning missile, he ducked before he could be staked by its beak. He missed seeing the bird transforming into a human right before everyone’s eyes in the kitchen.

 

“Joonmyun!” Jongin gasped, realizing that the stork was one of the sorcerers in the society. “I didn’t know that the stork was an actual sorcerer!”

 

“Yes, a sorcerer that served in the decision panel of your trial,” Joonmyun huffed. “I still stand by my decision. You should be cursed for eternity!”

 

“That’s fine! I’m fine as long as I’m with Kyungsoo!!”

 

“Well, just remember that while I’m free to fly wherever I want, you are stuck in this ugly castle! It’s still floating, so you won’t be able to escape so easily! With no one to help you, you’ll spend the rest of your days and rot in here!”

 

“Hmph!” Jongin scoffed indignantly. “So what if it’s ugly and looks like it’s made out of junk?! I think it looks better this way than a stupid, pristine white castle! The metal scraps give it personality!”

 

Joonmyun shook his head wordlessly before climbing out the window and jumping. Everyone watched as they saw him disappear out of sight for a second, then come back in their line of vision as a stork flying away.

 

“Jongin, was that necessary?” Jongdae asked, clearly upset.

 

“It wasn’t, but I still wanted to do it,” the younger shrugged and sat down next to Kyungsoo at the table. He ran his hand through the older’s hair, who obviously enjoyed being pet.

 

Yixing looked over worriedly at Jongdae because he could tell that something was bothering the prince. Jongdae couldn’t get the words of the stork out of his head, the words about the curse and being trapped forever being a constant echo.

 

No one except Yixing noticed that Jongdae disappeared from the room to do a lot of contemplating.

 

 

Night fell and Yixing hadn’t seen the prince all day. During dinner, at first it had only been Yixing, Jongin, and Kyungsoo — being the only one left with the couple, it was a little awkward for him, but he mostly focused on eating his food.

 

Luhan came in the middle screaming out, “I finished my invention!! I just need to find a safe place to test it with _me_ on it.” He wanted to lug the invention all the way to the kitchen to show them — it was like a metal round platform base with a seat on it, although it looked like it had room for a person to stand behind that seat. In front of the seat, was a steering wheel for direction, along the sides of the base were wings, and in front was a rotor blade.

 

However, since it was so big, it wouldn’t fit through the doorway of the room it was made in.

 

“I’ll help with it later,” Yixing offered.

 

“Yeah, Yixing can used an enlargement spell on the doorway. He’s already good at everything I’ve taught him. I have such a good eye for sorcerers,” Jongin bragged.

 

“That’s nice and all,” Kyungsoo interjected sardonically, “but I actually found out Yixing was a sorcerer before all of you.”

 

“What? How?” Jongin asked.

 

“Well, we were going through the Dark Forest—”

 

“The Dark Forest?!” Jongin squawked. “You went through the Dark Forest?!”

 

“— and we came across some shadow demons,” Kyungsoo continued, ignoring Jongin. “None of them could touch him. I’m pretty sure the first two demons knew, because they let us go so easily. I think they just wanted to mess with the other demons of the forest.”

 

“Wait, so what?” Yixing asked confused. “Can you explain?”

 

“Demons can’t eat the souls of sorcerers,” Kyungsoo explained. “Which is why, that last demon made a losing bargain with you because he hadn’t known you were a sorcerer. Demons may seem evil and manipulative, but they actually keep their sides of a deal. You basically cheated him out of a meal.”

 

This was the first time Yixing and Luhan were hearing this, but it all made sense to them now. They got incredibly lucky.

 

“Why didn’t you say something about Yixing being a sorcerer this whole time then? We could’ve been reunited earlier!” Jongin realized.

 

“Oh okay, you’re right. I should’ve talked,” Kyungsoo said. “It’s not like I tried and could only bark, and almost got scalded by your screaming and flames seventy percent of the time. Bite me.”

 

“Sorry,” Jongin sheepishly apologized.

 

They finished their dinner and they were going to clear up the table when Yixing stopped them. “Wait, Jongdae hasn’t eaten yet. Have you seen him?”

 

“Jongdae?” Jongin repeated. “When I was cooking, I saw him go outside to the balcony. I don’t think he ever came back in.”

 

“You didn’t call him in for dinner?”

 

Jongin shrugged. “Well, see, he often did this when I was a fire demon, but since I was stuck on a stove, I couldn’t go outside after him. I guess I was just kind of used to that and didn’t think to call him inside. I don’t think he likes to be bothered when he’s out there.”

 

“But he needs to eat,” Yixing insisted. He picked up the last plate of food that they left for the prince and Jongin didn’t stop him as he made his way over to the balcony door.

 

The prince was leaning on the edge of the balcony, looking up at the sky. He seemed to be deep in thought, but he turned around to see who it was when Yixing stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

 

“Hey.”

 

“Hey,” the prince replied back.

 

Yixing walked over to join Jongdae by the banister. He was a little cautious, still assessing the prince’s mood, if he was willing to talk or not. The last thing he ever wanted to do was upset Jongdae.

 

“The stars are pretty tonight,” the prince commented, looking up at the sky. “I can't remember how they look like down from where you've seen them.”

 

“They're beautiful,” Yixing said, thinking the way they sparkles reminded him of Jongdae’s eyes. “They're nicer up close.”

 

Jongdae hummed in agreement. Yixing felt that the prince seemed okay, so he decided to go for it.

 

“Jongdae, is something wrong? Everything seemed to work out, but you don't seem to be happy.”

 

Jongdae sighed. Wordlessly, he raised his hand and tried to push forward, but still could not go past the edge of the balcony.

 

“The curse is not fully lifted?”

 

Jongdae shook his head. “We thought it'd be broken after Kyungsoo was reunited with Jongin -- but we’re still stuck here. We have zero tracks on how to break the curse.”

 

“Can I ask what exactly happened?”

 

Jongdae shifted uncomfortably, but before Yixing could tell him that it was okay not to talk about it, he opened up about it.

 

“It was when word got around that Jongin fell in love with Kyungsoo, a human,” Jongdae started. “The Council summoned them to a trial that turned out planned and rigged from the start.

 

“ _Jongin, you have violated one of the most crucial rules of the Sorcerers’ Society,_ ” the prince recalled. _“As a royal sorcerer, you are obligated to marry an oracle, but you have shown clear intent of failing to do so. Therefore, as punishment for falling in love with a human, you are hereby cursed to life as a fire demon. Your duty as fire demon is to operate the Castle in the Clouds, which you will be anchored down to. The human shall also receive punishment and will be transformed. You two shall be broken apart to realize the graveness of your violation._

 

_At that, Jongin had shot up, ready to lunge at the judge. Kyungsoo had to hold him back before he did anything more that he regretted, while Jongdae stood up._

 

_“What my brother and Kyungsoo have is true love!” the prince had protested angrily. “You can’t separate them like this!”_

 

_“And you, Prince Jongdae, know what true love is? Have you ever experienced it for yourself?” one of the council members interjected._

 

_Jongdae had shrunk back on his words and hung his head. “No…”_

 

_“Then how can you know if what your brother and human are experiencing is true love? You know nothing about it.”_

 

_Silenced, Jongdae had sat back down, no longer able to make an argument. What had happened next was something he didn’t expect._

 

_“For speaking out of turn in an unmannerly fashion you are hereby sentenced to life trapped in the Castle in the Clouds along with the fire demon. All punishments will go into effect immediately."_

 

_The judge had hit his gavel against the sound block, dispersing the crowd and the jury. A set of guards had grabbed hold of Jongdae and Jongin and pulled them in the direction of the exit while another dragged Kyungsoo to the center of the courtroom._

 

_"Kyungsoo!!" Jongin had screamed out, struggling against the guards trying to lug him out of the courtroom. "What are you doing to him?! Let him go!!"_

 

_One of the sorcerer's of the council had stood in front of Kyungsoo. The human turned his head towards Jongin to get one last look — his expression was a defeated one, one of acceptance, and he gave Jongin a sad smile._

 

_The last thing Jongdae and Jongin saw before the doors closed was a swirl of light wrapping around Kyungsoo, rendering the human to disappear from their sight._

 

"So, you didn't get to see what Kyungsoo was turned into..." Yixing realized.

 

"Yeah, we had no idea for years," Jongdae admitted. "But now that we've found out what he was this entire time, it makes no difference because we're still stuck here," the prince said bitterly.

 

Yixing tried to rack his head for what could possibly be the way to undo the curse. Some of his magic was put into removing Jongin safely from the anchors of the castle — the castle still managed to stay afloat, but without the fire demon to fuel it, it no longer moved forward.

 

"I'm sorry," Yixing apologized. "I just don't know enough magic to come up with something yet. Jongin and I have actually been trying to find a way, but nothing's working."

 

Jongdae shook his head, already feeling guilty for telling the story and making Yixing feel like he had to apologize. "It's not your curse to begin with, so you trying to help out is already enough for me. Thank you, Yixing."

 

"I'd do my best for you," he replied with a genuine smile.

 

Jongdae wanted to, but he couldn't smile back. He looked back at the sky, trying to keep his thoughts at bay. He didn't want the older to know exactly what he was thinking, because they would probably upset him.

 

The voices of the sorcerers from the council rang inside his head ever since he recalled the memory.

 

_“And you, Prince Jongdae, know what true love is? Have you ever experienced it for yourself?”_

 

_“Then how can you know if what your brother and human are experiencing is true love? You know nothing about it.”_

 

The first person he thought of was Yixing. When the older broke into the castle, with his handsome face scrunched into distress by Jongin's screaming, it was still a thousand times better than a goblin that he was expecting. Yixing, who was a novelty after being stuck in a castle for years with nothing to do, who wanted to explore the castle and gave Jongdae purpose to re-visit all the rooms and do something other than sleep all day. Yixing with his wide smile and cute dimple, bright eyes and kind expressions.

 

Jongdae wanted to keep him here, keep him here by his side selfishly, but he knew better.

 

He wanted to keep him here, but he wanted anything but Yixing to feel trapped like him.

 

_"You are stuck in this ugly castle! It’s still floating, so you won’t be able to escape so easily! With no one to help you, you’ll spend the rest of your days and rot in here!”_

 

He had to let him leave, and if he insisted on staying out of pity and kindness, then to _make_ him leave.

 

Maybe Jongdae didn't know what true love was, but he did know that it was the closest he was ever going to get.

 

 

“Your hair…”

 

Yixing’s mouth dropped as he saw Jongdae come towards him with black hair. The bright orange was dyed to an ebony, and it came as a huge shock to Yixing.

 

“I’ve never told you this before, but I dye my hair when I’m really nervous about something,” Jongdae confessed. “And right now, I’m nervous because I need to talk to you about something important.”

 

Yixing frowned because it by the tone of Jongdae’s voice, it didn’t seem like the topic was a good one. “What is it? Is something wrong?”

 

Jongdae took his hand and led him to the lounge room. Upon arrival, he let go of Yixing’s hand and turned to face him.

 

“Jongdae, what’s the matter?”

 

The prince heaved a deep sigh before speaking. “I’ve thought about this for a long, long time,” Jongdae started off, wanting Yixing to understand that this wasn’t a rash decision. “After years and years of spending life in this castle, I know exactly how it feels like to be trapped and chained down to one place. I wouldn’t want the same kind of life for anyone, especially not for you.”

 

Yixing listened intently, already having a dreadful inkling of where this was going.

 

“I want you to take Luhan and leave the Castle in the Sky,” Jongdae told him with a heartbroken expression. “I can’t subject you to a life like this when you could be out there, traveling the world and experiencing one adventure after the other. I can’t keep you here.”

 

“Jongdae—”

 

“You can take Luhan’s machine, right? You guys can safely make it back down. If that doesn’t work, Jongin can work something out and maybe put a charm on it. I’ll make sure he does everything to make sure you guys can fly out of here.”

 

“Do you think Jongin will do that if I tell him I don’t want to leave?” Yixing asked. “Why did you decide this on your own?”

 

“Yixing, it’s better if you leave now. You will eventually get sick of this place, and dragging it out wouldn’t be right for you and me. It’s better if it’s now.”

 

“I don’t want to.”

 

“It’s a curse inflicted upon Jongin and me. I can’t subject you and Luhan to go through the same thing—”

 

“Then what about Kyungsoo? You’re not asking him to leave,” Yixing argued. “He’s not bound to this castle, but you’re not asking him leave like you are doing to me.”

 

“Kyungsoo is different. He and Jongin are in love, he won’t be able to leave Jongin—”

 

“Have you ever thought that I might be in love with you, too?” Yixing asked, cutting the prince off. “Has that ever crossed your mind while during our time together?”

 

Jongdae started in silent shock as Yixing came closer to him. He was too surprised to respond, never expecting a confession to come out of this argument with him.

 

“I love you. I love how you whine and how you’re too nice for your own good. I love how beautiful you look whether it’s blonde or orange hair; whether you’re surrounded by music notes or bananas. I love how I have a reassuring feeling that I love your company, you by my side, and that I feel like I can just stay together with you for thousands of years.

 

“And I know you love me, too, because you’re trying to make me leave. But don’t fight this, you sending me away isn’t how it should be. I want to stay together with you, whether it’s in this castle, in the skies, on the ground, anywhere.”

 

Yixing took Jongdae’s hands in his and the prince suddenly felt embarrassed, shy even. “You didn’t have to confess for me…”

 

“Sorry,” Yixing apologized sheepishly.

 

“I guess I’ll just have to show my love in another way,” Jongdae said. He placed his hands on Yixing’s face and pulled him in for a kiss. The older closed his eyes and reciprocated, wrapping his arms around the prince’s waist. After a few moments, they pulled away.

 

Breathless, Jongdae couldn’t find the right words to say. “That was—”

 

There was a loud rumbling noise going through the castle; Jongdae and Yixing could feel the floors and the walls start violently shaking as if there was an earthquake.

 

“What’s happening with the castle?!” Yixing shouted over all the shaking.

 

“I don’t know!!!” Jongdae screamed back. The prince clung onto Yixing tightly, both trying to maintain balance through all the chaos. The tremors went on for a few more minutes, before everything stopped.

 

Yixing and Jongdae looked around carefully before deeming it safe again.

 

“What… was that…” Jongdae asked.

 

Before Yixing could say anything, the two of them were suddenly lifted off the ground and smashed flat onto the ceiling. It took a few moments to process what was happening, but as they saw clouds speeding upwards outside of the windows, they realized.

 

The castle was _falling._

 

It was plummeting down 50,000 feet to the ground and they were all going to _die._

 

Yixing and Jongdae could hear Kyungsoo, Jongin, and Luhan screaming over from the next room. They were probably pinned up on the ceiling as well, thinking about the fast approaching death that they were racing towards.

 

“ARE WE GOING TO DIE?!” Yixing yelled out, the force of falling almost pushing his words back down his throat.

 

“YES, AND THE LAST LIVING WORDS I WANT TO SAY ARE THAT I LOVE YOU, TOO,” Jongdae screamed back.

 

As the castle broke through the clouds, it seemed to get to the ground slower and slower. From the ceasing speed, Yixing and Jongdae dropped back onto the floor with a loud thud. Frazzled and dizzy, they stood up and looked outside the window, only to see that the castle was still floating but no longer in the sky.

 

They watched as the ground seemed to get closer and closer, until there was a resounding thud.

 

“Impossible,” Jongdae breathed as he made a beeline for the front door — something Yixing did not know existed. The prince swung the door open and right in front of his eyes, light blue was replaced with bright green.

 

_The Castle in the Sky was on the ground._

 

It had landed on a meadow that seemed the stretch for miles, almost like the one where Yixing and Luhan had first spotted the castle.

 

Jongdae reached his hand out and carefully tested pushing past the doorway. He was fearful whether or not it would still be held back by the curse. Yixing came up behind the prince and placed his hand behind Jongdae’s. The prince looked back, looking for any kind of reassurance from Yixing and he got it from a smile. Together they pushed their hands past the doorway, feeling nothing in their way.

 

“It’s broken,” Jongdae said with disbelief. “The curse is broken; I’m free!”

 

Luhan, Kyungsoo, and Jongin came rushing in from the kitchen.

 

“What just happened?!” Jongin exclaimed, not believing his eyes. “We just fell out of the sky and the castle’s on the ground, where’s Jongdae?”

 

Yixing smiled and pointed out the door, where Jongdae was running around the meadow and screaming about his freedom. Jongin, overcome with emotion, went out and joined his brother, even with the screaming.

 

“Would it still be appropriate to call this the Castle in the Sky?” Luhan joked. Kyungsoo elbowed the older in the gut before crossing his arms back over his chest and watching the scene happily.

 

A flash of white caught Yixing’s sight and he saw that it was the stork from a couple of days ago. Upon reaching the ground, it transformed into its human form, and unraveled the scroll that it was originally holding in its beak.

 

“Congratulations,” Joonmyun said to no one in particular. “You have undone the curse placed on you by the Council of Sorcerers. You have found true love and in doing so, you have shown that it does prevail above all, yada, yada, yada…” Joonmyun blabbed before shutting the scroll shut.

 

At this time, all five of them were outside of the castle surrounding the messenger sorcerer.

 

“The Society would like to apologize to Royal Sorcerer Kim Jongin for casting a punishment curse on him for the last 8 years,” Joonmyun announced. “They are willing to offer a seat to him in the Council as a welcoming back gift.”

 

Jongin squinted at Joonmyun, whose face continued to remain placid. “Did you tell them what I told you to say to them last time? Tell them they can keep their stupid seat to themselves.”

 

“Very well, then,” Joonmyun conceded. “The castle may remain as your permanent residence, though part of it shall still stay as storage for the Society. Have a good day, now.”

 

In a blink, the sorcerer once again transformed into a stork and flew away.

 

The five of them turned back to the castle and gasped in shock — the pile of metal junk was replaced with a magnificent and tall-standing white castle, just as the one Yixing had seen from his picture book when he was a child. It was every kids’ dream come true, and it was right in front of him now.

 

Kyungsoo, Jongin, and Luhan rushed inside the castle, leaving Yixing and Jongdae to continue marveling at the outside.

 

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Yixing called to the prince’s attention.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Why’d you dye your hair the first time? From blonde to orange? What were you so nervous about?”

 

Jongdae let out a short laugh. “I was nervous because I started to have feelings for you around then. I didn’t know how I should talk to you or what you thought of me or anything,” the prince admitted. “Of course, over time, my feeling for you grew and I had nothing to be nervous about.”

 

Yixing smiled. “Well, I remember I said that the blond was a lot better than the orange and you got upset with me. But if I were to be completely honest right now, I like the black hair the best.”

 

Jongdae’s heart swooned at the older’s words; he gave a quick peck on his lips before grabbing his hand and dragging him inside the castle. What met their eyes wasn’t the familiar wood and homey setting, but a white marble grandeur that matched the outside of the palace.

 

“What! Nooo!” Jongdae wailed, upset that those years of decorating to set up a comfortable and homey setting was gone. “It reverted!!”

 

“You don’t like this?” Yixing asked.

 

“No!” Jongdae answered. “This feels wrong and indifferent! It’s too fancy! I want to smash something!” he whined.

 

“I’m sure we can do something about it,” Yixing reassured him.

 

“Will you help me redecorate it? It might take a few years.” Jongdae asked. “I need some rooms to go back to the way it was, _especially_ the plant room.”

 

“Of course,” Yixing accepted, knowing exactly what he was binding himself to. “Even if it takes forever, I’ll help you redecorate the castle. But first things first, before we can get to home interior, I promised myself that I’d do something for you.”

 

“Hmm? What is it?”

 

“I’ll take you anywhere and everywhere you want to go, to finally explore life outside of the castle. What do you think?”

 

Jongdae smiled the widest he’s ever, even after the best few months of his life. “To do it with you, I’d love that.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> unbetaed, rushed, if you see this note that means that I still have one more scene to add RIP maybe if you refresh it will be there LMAO thank you to peokkiemeokkie for long night calls and encouragement ♡♡♡


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